Brian Scotto: Media's Struggles; Algorithms; RWB Drama; Farming; Crazy Audi Parties

Brian Scotto drops knowledge on the present issues facing media companies and content creators alike; how the algorithm ruined things; throwing crazy parties on Audis dime in the early 2000s; stealing a taxi; tractors vs cars; what some creators are getting right; running magazines; why he walks past his Ferrari; and he answers Patreon questions about: - How his directing skills evolved over the years - What the end of "Road Kill" means for automotive television - How to improve your creative eye - Top 3 cars he owns - Mods that help sell a car - The perfect Doordash car - Why his Porsche almost got a Motec - And more Recorded November 18, 2024 https://www.patreon.com/c/user/posts?u=37266647 Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for DeleteMe. Go to https://www.joindeleteme.com/TIRE and use promo code TIRE for 20% off. New merch! Grab a shirt or hoodie and support us! https://thesmokingtireshop.com/ Use Off The Record! and ALWAYS fight your tickets! Enter code TSTPOD for a 10% discount on your first case on the Off The Record app, or go to https://www.offtherecord.com/TST Want your question answered? Want to watch the live stream, get ad-free podcasts, or exclusive podcasts? Join our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thesmokingtirepodcast Tweet at us! https://www. Twitter.com/thesmokingtire https://www. Twitter.com/zackklapman Instagram: https://www. Instagram.com/thesmokingtire https://www. Instagram.com/therealzackklapman

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Matt Farah?

  But so what did you mean by that free content is failing because the audience is no longer in control? What's up everybody? Welcome to the Smoke and Tire Podcast. This episode is brought to you by Off the Record. Man, do we love Off the Record. And boy, do I have a news story for you. I got a friend down in Texas, got himself a new car. And on the way home, boy, did he have a little bit of a problem, folks. Had a big one. He called me, I set him up with Off the Record. And boy, was he excited when he texted me back this morning, just this morning. And he goes, I cannot believe it. I got pulled over doing a number that was, woo! It was a big one.

• 0:40Matt Farah?

  And Off the Record got it dismissed, fully dismissed, not even just reduced. Off the Record is the best. They are a service that connects you with a qualified attorney in the jurisdiction where you got that moving violation. Could be a big one, could be a small one, doesn't matter. Don't plead guilty. Get Off the Record. Go to offtherecord.com/tst or use code TSTPOD on the Off the Record app. Again, go to offtherecord.com/tst or download that Off the Record app for iOS and Android and use code TSTPOD.

• 1:22Matt Farah?

  That will get you 10% off any legal services booked through Off the Record. I've used them a whole bunch in my career. I tell my friends, I tell my family, I tell you people. And when you use them and they come through for you, you guys tell me back. It helps me do these promos. So I like it both ways. So offtherecord.com/tst or code TSTPOD on that Off the Record app. Have it in your pocket, ready to go. If you get pulled over, you're using them confidently and you're not pleading guilty.

• 1:56Matt Farah?

  All right, on this episode of the podcast by popular request, Hoonigan, creative director, former anyway, and all-around content genius Brian Scotto is in studio. He's got new podcasts he's talking about, he's got new videos he's talking about. He was of course, one of the founders of Hoonigan, and so he has lots of stories. We're talking about Volkswagen, we're talking about Audis, we're talking about RWB controversy, and this one is the longest podcast we have ever done, beating the Johnny Lieberman record from just a little bit ago. So let's get straight into it.

• 2:37Matt Farah?

  Without further ado, Brian Scotto is on the Smoking Tire Podcast. Let's go.

• 2:45Speaker 01

  It's like, you know, you gotta prepare. It's like boxers not having sex before a fight. You gotta just like, me and him can't even talk. Right. Like a month leading up. It's just material.

• 2:53Speaker 02

  Especially if you want to go four hours or whatever.

• 2:55Speaker 01

  Like, it must like, do you see Lieberman more often? Is he like in your group of people?

• 2:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I see him around.

• 3:00Speaker 01

  So is it hard to do a podcast with him because you already talk about a lot all the time?

• 3:04Matt Farah?

  Um.

• 3:07Speaker 01

  Or is there enough?

• 3:08Matt Farah?

  That's a person where there's always, same with me, there's always something going on that can drive conversation. And he does like, you know, study stuff. He's not always, I don't always agree with his conclusions, but he does, uh, he does research things a lot. Talk to like engineers and things like that.

• 3:31Speaker 01

  Before you hit the button, do we want to open packages now?

• 3:34Matt Farah?

  The button has been hit.

• 3:35Speaker 02

  The button's been pushed. Doesn't matter. Yeah, we just started rolling, but you can open the package.

• 3:38Matt Farah?

  The fucking snacks. I mean, are we really in for some kind of a marathon? Because you have four Red Bulls in front of you.

• 3:50Matt Farah?

  These are the craft services. This is the devil.

• 3:53Speaker 01

  It's the king.

• 3:54Matt Farah?

  The peanut butter pretzel filled nuggets are the fucking devil. I swear.

• 3:59Speaker 01

  I prefer them in the plastic case because then when you're done, you could put nuts and bolts in them. I have like 90 of those in my garage, but this. This is, this is king.

• 4:07Matt Farah?

  I'll tell you what, I, you know, I've gained and lost. If I, if I did a chart of gain and loss.

• 4:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:11Matt Farah?

  Weight over my life.

• 4:13Speaker 01

  You look good right now, so you've lost weight.

• 4:14Matt Farah?

  Okay, you know what it is? It's the vest. Turns out.

• 4:15Speaker 01

  Is that what it is? You're a vest guy?

• 4:17Matt Farah?

  Turns out, it hides the good part, hides the bad parts and, and accentuates the good part.

• 4:22Speaker 01

  Oh, okay.

• 4:23Matt Farah?

  But, uh, of all the weight, I've probably gained and lost two hundred and fifty pounds over the course of my life, up and down.

• 4:31Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 4:32Matt Farah?

  Right? Probably a third of it.

• 4:34Speaker 01

  Is from that?

• 4:35Matt Farah?

  Is from fucking craft service peanut butter pretzel nuggets.

• 4:39Speaker 01

  They're a good time.

• 4:39Matt Farah?

  Them shits are the devil.

• 4:42Speaker 01

  They're so simple. I just introduced my son to him the other day and he breaks the pretzel off and just eats the peanut butter inside. And I'm like, you're missing the point.

• 4:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, yeah, you could just get peanut butter.

• 4:53Speaker 01

  He's like, I just want the sweet part. He's not into the savory part. He just wants the sweet.

• 4:57Matt Farah?

  You know?

• 4:57Speaker 01

  You know.

• 4:58Matt Farah?

  If he had a TikTok account, people would be like, Kabi would be like, what the?

• 5:01Speaker 02

  Does he love Easter? Cause you can get the eggs, he's open it and there's candy inside. He seems like, um, he likes the extraction process.

• 5:08Matt Farah?

  Cream egg? Does he just like scoop it out with a spoon?

• 5:11Speaker 01

  Well, we don't give him much candy, so when he gets it, it's like full, just like full addicts.

• 5:16Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 5:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:17Speaker 01

  He's just, it's just uncontrollable.

• 5:19Matt Farah?

  Be careful.

• 5:19Speaker 01

  He'll, he'll take like a bag of candy and run into another room and lock the door. And we have to, I have to like sit there and like pick the door to get in.

• 5:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Be careful with that strategy because I had, I ended up, my mom didn't really keep anything bad for you in the house. And I was allowed to have desserts once in a while.

• 5:36Speaker 01

  Right.

• 5:36Matt Farah?

  But then a neighbor moved next to me and he went, he was in my school, in my class and we became friends and his house.

• 5:43Speaker 01

  He had the double stuff, so he had the everything.

• 5:45Matt Farah?

  You name it. They had a, they were the first house that I'd ever seen, ever to have like a beverage truck drop off. They had a weekly delivery, Snapples, Arizonas, everything. And then like, it was like on the route that, that they did a convenience store. Like the same truck that would go to the deli by our high school would.

• 6:07Speaker 01

  My childhood friend, he was one of four, right? So it was four brothers.

• 6:11Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 6:11Speaker 01

  And at a certain point, they just started shopping for everything at like the beer distributor. You know, and this is like pre Costco.

• 6:17Matt Farah?

  Before Besmo Costco.

• 6:19Speaker 01

  Before salmon and all that. And it was like, he would go to the beer distributor and they would just come home with like racks of like off-brand soda, you know, we would just crush them as a kid.

• 6:27Matt Farah?

  Oh my God, the weird soda brands.

• 6:29Speaker 01

  What was the brand, what was the brand in New York? That was like, it was like Whitestone or like White something. It was a soda brand.

• 6:38Matt Farah?

  Oh, I don't know.

• 6:38Speaker 01

  And they had like black cherry, they had like all the.

• 6:40Matt Farah?

  There's Dr. Brown's is the legendary one. Dr. Brown's is like, if you have old Jewish relatives, they will crush Dr. Brown's.

• 6:48Speaker 01

  But that's like, I think that's a, that's a, that's a step above.

• 6:50Matt Farah?

  It's more mainstream.

• 6:51Speaker 01

  This came like in a can and.

• 6:54Matt Farah?

  It was like White Rose or White, I forget, something like that.

• 6:56Speaker 02

  Not New York Celsa, right?

• 6:57Speaker 01

  No, no, New York Celsa's fancy, you know, stuff. This was like, they sold in wall bounds, right? Like if you remember wall bounds, this was the type of, the rack of soda that you would get. White Rock? White Rock. I think it's White Rock soda.

• 7:10Matt Farah?

  Maybe.

• 7:10Speaker 01

  Maybe something like that.

• 7:12Matt Farah?

  I must, I'm from, I'm from Richie Richland, yeah.

• 7:15Speaker 01

  You lived north of the boroughs, north of the boroughs. White Rock.

• 7:18Matt Farah?

  White Rock's a thing. But when I went to college, I mean, you want to talk about fucking generic brand beer? I'm, I go deep.

• 7:27Speaker 01

  Where'd you go?

• 7:27Matt Farah?

  I went to Penn, but I was in a fraternity, so we go with the Dakota, Dakota and Dakota Light. Of course you have the Beast.

• 7:33Speaker 01

  The Beast is a classic.

• 7:34Matt Farah?

  The Beast, you have Natty, you have Schlitz, you have, I mean, all of them. Dakota was by far the cheapest beer I've ever bought, ever. A thirty rack was four dollars.

• 7:46Speaker 01

  What was the one that was just called?

• 7:47Matt Farah?

  Thirty. This was in two thousand and two, but nevertheless, it was a thirty rack of Bud Light was probably, you know, twenty-eight bucks.

• 7:57Speaker 02

  Keyleight was like thirty-three cents a beer.

• 7:58Matt Farah?

  This was like a quarter of the price of Bud Light.

• 8:01Speaker 02

  That's, that's unsafe.

• 8:02Matt Farah?

  It was crazy.

• 8:03Speaker 01

  The, what was, there was one beer at that point that was just called like something Ice. It wasn't even like a brand name.

• 8:09Matt Farah?

  It was Natty Ice.

• 8:10Speaker 01

  It was Natty Ice, of course, but this was just like beer ice.

• 8:14Speaker 01

  Like they weren't even trying, like there was no, there was no logo design, they were just like, they just printed it, it was like Times New Roman Beer Ice. You're like, okay, I'll drink that.

• 8:22Matt Farah?

  I do like an ice, oh you shit, I just looked up at the screen. White Rock. Now I remember the logos, yeah.

• 8:29Speaker 01

  The White Rock Ginger ale was a good time.

• 8:31Matt Farah?

  The White Rock Ginger ale was good, and the tonic water was alright too. That was back before we had fancy tonic water. James May just sent, do you like gin, you know, do you drink gin, you're sober now?

• 8:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I mean, I never was a gin guy to begin with.

• 8:43Matt Farah?

  James May just sent us the biggest goddamn case of gin, so if you'd like to take a bottle home.

• 8:47Speaker 01

  How, how was he, by the way?

• 8:49Matt Farah?

  Exactly the James May you want in your fucking studio.

• 8:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, I bet, I bet.

• 8:54Matt Farah?

  Did not disappoint.

• 8:54Speaker 01

  I bet.

• 8:55Matt Farah?

  Hundred percent, great.

• 8:55Speaker 01

  I got to work with him on set for Top Gear.

• 8:59Matt Farah?

  Oh, really?

• 8:59Speaker 01

  And he was like, my favorite.

• 9:00Matt Farah?

  What were you doing there?

• 9:01Speaker 01

  Um, we did with, with Ken, they wanted him to roll a Reliant Robin.

• 9:05Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 9:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, Robin's Reliant, Robin, yeah.

• 9:09Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 9:09Speaker 01

  The three wheel thing.

• 9:10Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 9:10Speaker 01

  And, uh, we went out there, and, uh, it was kind of a crazy day because like, you know, for me, those guys were, were like, they were like meeting my idols, right? I mean, so much of what they did inspired Zero to Sixty, and then later inspired what we did with Hoonigan. And getting to like hang out with them, but they were like just being like normal people, but also still being them.

• 9:31Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 9:32Speaker 01

  Like, like.

• 9:32Matt Farah?

  Well, they're themselves on, it's the same people, yeah, yeah.

• 9:36Speaker 01

  Which you don't get often, you know, like, they, they were those people, but getting to kind of spend that time, but then I spent like, three hours sitting in a Transit van with the Stig.

• 9:46Matt Farah?

  With, with Ben?

• 9:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, with Ben, and he had his helmet on the whole time. I did, and you know, at the time, like, at the time, the Stig was still, you know, this is like two thousand, maybe like twelve or something, like, the, the confidentiality of the Stig's still pretty big.

• 9:58Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 9:59Speaker 01

  So like, he's talking to me, but he's got the helmet and the visor down the whole time. And we're just sitting, just sitting like in a Transit van together, just chatting about life. And then, you know, it's like, alright.

• 10:09Matt Farah?

  Weird vibe.

• 10:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, and it was like really weird, cause he never was like, hi, I'm, I'm Ben.

• 10:13Matt Farah?

  Talking to a superhero or something.

• 10:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, it was like basically like just sitting there having lunch with Superman, and I'm sitting there like chatting him up, we're talking, you know? And then at the end of the night, I get an email from him. And it's from Ben Collins.

• 10:25Matt Farah?

  It was nice meeting you.

• 10:26Speaker 01

  And it just says, "Nice meeting you today." And it was like finding out that like Santa Claus didn't exist. Like I almost wanted, I love that, I love that he stayed in character all day.

• 10:36Matt Farah?

  He didn't even have like a Stig at TopGear.com email address.

• 10:38Speaker 01

  No, only to break it.

• 10:40Speaker 02

  Right, right, that's so funny.

• 10:41Speaker 01

  You did it all day long. Like we were in, we were cosplaying the whole day together, buddy. And then like you called the safety word, but there was no reason to.

• 10:49Matt Farah?

  You went, he went visor down all day.

• 10:52Speaker 01

  Did he lift it? Just to ruin it with an email at the end of the day.

• 10:56Matt Farah?

  "I invite you from IamTheStig@gmail."

• 10:58Speaker 02

  How did he not create this TheStig@gmail?

• 11:01Speaker 01

  No, it was like Ben at BenCollinsRacing.com. It was like the most British email ever.

• 11:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:06Matt Farah?

  Did we talk about it last time you were here? We, I've had this conversation with somebody about celebrities that have easily guessable email addresses.

• 11:15Speaker 01

  Or like, "Your worth, your net worth is a hundred million dollars, please get rid of your AOL.com email." Like [email protected] is not acceptable.

• 11:25Matt Farah?

  That's how you determine like when someone got really rich. Cause if you earned a hundred million in 98, the world's coming to me.

• 11:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. And someone else deals with, like you actually only get like four emails a day because no one else is allowed direct contact with you.

• 11:41Matt Farah?

  I told you what my dad did for a very long time, right? My dad would have his assistant print out all of his emails and divide them into three piles: today, this week, and like eventually.

• 11:53Speaker 01

  That's amazing.

• 11:54Matt Farah?

  And he would handwrite responses and give them back to her. And she would then type them in.

• 12:00Speaker 02

  Does he have really good handwriting?

• 12:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's pretty good. It's not like that, like Carl, we know, writes like the Constitution. But yeah, you could read his writing. Yeah, yeah. But it's a, it's a boss move. He also used to turn off his cellphone when he wasn't actively making a call. This was like in the night, in late 90s, yeah, early StarTAC era. He would turn, he'd make a call and then turn the phone off and put it away.

• 12:22Speaker 01

  My phone number is the same phone number I had from my first digital StarTAC.

• 12:27Matt Farah?

  Dude, my too!

• 12:27Speaker 01

  I remember like, it was probably, because as a kid, I didn't grow up with a ton of money or anything. So for me, having a digital StarTAC in 1998 was like the first baller thing I ever had. Like I remember you'd pop it and people would look and be like, oh.

• 12:41Matt Farah?

  You'd snap it like extra tight when you'd close it?

• 12:44Speaker 01

  And it was the black one, because the gray one was the old analog StarTAC, you know? You don't want to be on that poor man train. The digital StarTAC was important, but by the way, don't call me until after nine.

• 12:53Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I'm a little younger than you, so my first phone was the Nokia.

• 12:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, that's the classic.

• 12:59Matt Farah?

  Which is the classic indestructible Nokia. But I did have the Skytel before that.

• 13:06Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 13:06Matt Farah?

  Did you ever have a pager?

• 13:08Speaker 01

  No, I had a pager, but I didn't have the service. I just had a fashion pager where you could spell asshole upside down. But I didn't have the one where you could actually send messages, but my uncle did.

• 13:17Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 13:18Speaker 01

  Which was the coolest thing ever, was like to send someone a message.

• 13:20Matt Farah?

  You'd have to call the receptionist and tell them your message.

• 13:23Speaker 01

  Which was always fun to like say, to call them to say something inappropriate.

• 13:26Matt Farah?

  Yeah, when you're in high school, that's like all you do.

• 13:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, because there's just some nice lady on the other side and she's like, thanks for calling Skypager. Like, what is your message? And you're like, uh, suck my nuts from the back.

• 13:38Speaker 02

  Oh, my God. I never did that.

• 13:39Speaker 01

  And she's like, is that N-U-T-Z?

• 13:45Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 13:45Speaker 02

  Those two almost have the best stories. That's incredible.

• 13:47Matt Farah?

  Yeah, the Skytel receptionists, they were all right.

• 13:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:50Matt Farah?

  And then everyone got the Nextel.

• 13:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:52Matt Farah?

  Did you have the Nextel?

• 13:53Speaker 01

  Of course. I had the Nextel BlackBerry.

• 13:56Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 13:57Speaker 01

  So it was like business with a side of hood.

• 14:00Matt Farah?

  That's the mullet of cell phones.

• 14:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, because like I would be in, I'd be in meetings, this is like early Ride Zero to Sixty Days. I'd be like in real serious meetings and my like shithead friends would chirp me the most inappropriate shit.

• 14:13Matt Farah?

  Pass that blunt.

• 14:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. I wish it was that good. It was usually something that would...

• 14:17Matt Farah?

  The Nextel BlackBerry.

• 14:19Speaker 01

  That's the one, the one right there that says in stock on eBay, second over from the top. That's the one I had.

• 14:23Matt Farah?

  What was one of them cost today? And what would you do with it? The fuck would you do? I mean, thirty-nine bucks, would you be melting it down and getting the copper out of it or something?

• 14:33Speaker 01

  I miss the chirp, though.

• 14:35Matt Farah?

  I did love...

• 14:36Speaker 01

  It was a, it was a good feature. Like, you don't have time to call someone, especially for driving. Like, if you're all rolling together as a crew, it's like a walk in your pocket, which is kind of nice.

• 14:45Matt Farah?

  I just did this, you know, road and track event. We do, the guided tours and I lead them. It was really fun. Everyone had a great time and, and it was... It was beautiful weather and man, did I hammer the shit out of the Bentley GT Speed on the track. That car slides so good. It was great, great.

• 15:07Speaker 01

  Amazing.

• 15:08Matt Farah?

  Uh, but we use radios and it's like, it's a game changer when it comes to driving in groups.

• 15:12Speaker 01

  It's the best.

• 15:13Matt Farah?

  Motorcycle people all know this, of course.

• 15:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's the best. It like changes everything and then you always forget to bring them with you.

• 15:20Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 15:20Speaker 01

  Cause I'd always be like going somewhere and or I'd be the guy who brings them like with like my group like Vinnie and Ron or whatever. We'd be going somewhere and I'm like handing out the walkies and they're like, okay dad.

• 15:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 15:29Speaker 01

  And then sure enough, like they don't turn them on. Everyone misses the exit. I'm like, could've just had the walkie on. We could've just done this.

• 15:35Speaker 02

  Oh, we always did tons of chatter on the road trips. Like it was almost like so much that eventually you just turn it off for like half an hour to kind of get a break.

• 15:41Matt Farah?

  Oh man, when we would, you know, they, they, road and track, I, I lead the, the big group when we're driving it and I make the route. And so I'm mostly doing directions and like, there's a mattress in the road, like move right, stuff like that. Um, but our old editor, Mike Guy, did you know Mike?

• 15:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 15:58Matt Farah?

  So he's-

• 15:58Speaker 01

  Mike just lived off the block from me in Greenport.

• 16:00Matt Farah?

  He's great. Um, um, and he's, he used to be Hunter Thompson's assistant and he's got like stories coming out of his ass, you know? But he would get on the radio and tell these like winding ass stories like he's doing a podcast. And I'm trying to be all like turn right in a mile and you can't like, I can't like boot him off the radio.

• 16:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 16:20Matt Farah?

  Morally and technically, I cannot. I'm trying to be like, yo, there's like a spike strip in the road.

• 16:28Matt Farah?

  And he's just like not getting off the radio. So yeah.

• 16:31Speaker 01

  Amazing. Yeah, the uh, walkies are the best for that type of stuff, but yeah, anyway, I missed, you know what I saw the other day, speaking of old technology? And I saw this, I think that's like, I'm starting to realize I'm getting old. Cause like I have like a nostalgia for a particular era of tech. Like I'm not anti-tech, but like it's like tech's gone too far.

• 16:47Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 16:48Speaker 01

  I saw like second or third gen iPod that had been converted for Bluetooth.

• 16:54Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 16:55Speaker 01

  I was like, I was like, I kinda like that, like to go to the gym or to go for a walk and not bring my phone.

• 17:00Matt Farah?

  Not have it be your phone.

• 17:00Speaker 01

  But still be able to use my AirPods, which like I live with.

• 17:03Matt Farah?

  You do you use do not disturb on your phone?

• 17:05Speaker 01

  I do, but it's not that I'm worried about people disturbing me, it's that I have zero self first.

• 17:11Matt Farah?

  I know exactly what you mean.

• 17:12Speaker 01

  Where it's like, I look at my phone, I'm like, I wonder if anyone texted me.

• 17:15Matt Farah?

  A hundred percent.

• 17:16Speaker 01

  There's, you know, this on Instagram.

• 17:17Matt Farah?

  Yeah, like an actual, just a regular ass iPod might be a good thing to have.

• 17:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's kinda cool.

• 17:23Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I was just.

• 17:24Speaker 01

  It was three hundred bucks. I was like, I don't know if I want that much.

• 17:28Matt Farah?

  The, uh, speaking of like old technology, I was just at, uh, John Ward from Icon. Did his Icons of Design thing this past weekend, which is basically, it's this charity event that also celebrates, um, things that are made in Los Angeles. It's about, it's all about handmade things in LA. So everything was beautiful because of course it's John Ward. It was, everything was insanely expensive. I almost bought like a pocket knife. There was a pocket knife company there. I picked it up and it was fourteen hundred dollars. I was like, whoa.

• 17:56Speaker 01

  Everything is artisanal. Yeah.

• 17:58Matt Farah?

  Mad artisanal. Uh, so I made a donation to the charity, but there was a guy there selling like vintage shit. You know, just a bunch of, you know, stuff. And he had set up almost like an apartment. You know, there was a couple of couches and a coffee table and like a motorcycle and like a, you know, whatever. It's all for sale. And he, he goes, I got something to show you. And takes me to the back of his car and he opens it up and he goes, I went to the Clint Eastwood estate sale and I'm like, and I'd actually read about this. There was a Clint Eastwood. He's not dead.

• 18:26Speaker 01

  Which is, I was about to say, I was like, did I miss this?

• 18:28Matt Farah?

  No, no, no. So it's not, he didn't die. He sold his first house in LA.

• 18:34Speaker 01

  Can I just stop this for a second? If you're not dead, you're just having a garage sale.

• 18:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah, right.

• 18:39Speaker 01

  You just went to the Clint Eastwood garage sale.

• 18:41Matt Farah?

  True, but no, but.

• 18:42Speaker 01

  But estate sounds nicer.

• 18:43Matt Farah?

  No, but it, but here's what happened. He sold his first house in LA to his friend. His friend, who was like possibly mildly obsessed with him, kept the house exactly the same.

• 18:53Speaker 01

  Oh, weird.

• 18:54Matt Farah?

  Didn't take the art off the walls, didn't take shit out of the closets. He was like, here's the keys, fucking see ya. And so this guy died. And so it's basically. Like it is an estate sale, not for Clint Eastwood, but it's all Clint Eastwood's shit. From like the eighties. So, so what I was talking about is this guy fucking goes to his truck and he goes, look, it's Clint Eastwood's cable box.

• 19:22Matt Farah?

  He's got.

• 19:24Speaker 01

  It's not like the gun from Dirty Harry. It's like, look, it's his Tocom receiver.

• 19:28Matt Farah?

  Yeah, like here's his like TV remote from like nineteen eighty-four.

• 19:33Speaker 02

  I would tell him to prove it. I'm like, prove it.

• 19:35Matt Farah?

  Well, yeah.

• 19:36Speaker 02

  Clint Eastwood's toiletry kit.

• 19:37Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Um, and then he had like some, a bunch of VHSs and like other shit.

• 19:43Speaker 01

  It's amazing.

• 19:43Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it was wild. But he had that, he had that, that TV remote that was on the long wire and it almost looked like a keyboard. Remember that shit? Early age. Yeah, that was old school. Anyway.

• 19:56Speaker 01

  Jonathan's great, by the way. I, the thing I always loved about him was in like early sort of Hoonigan content days. Like he was really keen on doing stuff with us and I, he's so the polar opposite of our, you know, of what our design aesthetic was. And what our style was, but he just.

• 20:14Matt Farah?

  He's the anti dirtbag.

• 20:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, but he loved it. Like he loved us. He loved all of that. And it was like, he was, and our audience loved him too, which was really interesting. Cause we brought him on. I'm like, man, is anyone really going to care about this? Whatever. Like, you know, and people did. Like people just like, there's something about him.

• 20:30Matt Farah?

  He's a very good storyteller.

• 20:32Speaker 01

  He's a good storyteller and I think that you enjoy people who care that much about anything.

• 20:37Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 20:37Speaker 01

  Right? Like if someone came in here and told you the history of pretzel nuggets, right? But they fucking care. You'd be like, man, I didn't realize that there's different ratios of peanut butter and that makes sense why the Costco ones don't taste as good. I get it.

• 20:50Matt Farah?

  I have listened to deep, deep podcasts on incredibly.

• 20:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:56Matt Farah?

  Minor details of life and history.

• 20:58Speaker 01

  That's my favorite thing is like the weird, weird deep dive that people will do. And you're like, oh yeah, this rabbit hole is, I don't know why you would do it, but whatever. I'm here for it.

• 21:06Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 21:07Speaker 02

  Did you guys have him on for build biology or something like that?

• 21:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, we had him on for build bio. Um, I forget with which vehicle, maybe it was one of. One of the Broncos or one of the Icon trucks he did early on. I forget what it was.

• 21:20Speaker 02

  You guys showcased so many cars that were incredibly unique, incredibly like not ornate, but like complicated at times, but I think it showed like, hey, one person like that crazy Firebird, super wide fender cage thing, like this person cared this much about this vehicle and took it further than anybody. And I think John obviously does that. He just does it over and over again with the Broncos.

• 21:38Speaker 01

  Yeah. And like the whole concept of that show was like, you know, the first show we did, Daily Transmission, like the best way to explain it is just, it was like Jay Leno's Garage for shitheads. It was like, bring your car on instead of showing me how the steam engine works, like crash it into a fence.

• 21:53Speaker 01

  And that worked really well for us. But then we started to realize that like some of these cars that were coming on were so good that they needed a better story and they didn't just need to be like burnouts. And we were also losing people who didn't want to come on because in the early days of the show, someone come on, they'd do a little burnout. I remember you wouldn't do a burnout, right? I think, or did you?

• 22:11Matt Farah?

  No, no, I did a burnout. What would I not do? There was something.

• 22:15Speaker 01

  Whatever it was, but.

• 22:16Matt Farah?

  There was something someone asked me to do and I was like, absolutely not.

• 22:20Speaker 01

  But in the early days, it was acceptable to just come on and do a 15 second, smoke the tires, everyone cheers. By episode 300, it was nice. Our level of kink was so high that it was involving toilet stuff. Like it was really next level and like it wasn't going to just be normal. And it got to the point where people who were building these really, really cool cars didn't want to come on the show. So we started that show to kind of talk to that audience. And it was one of the most interesting things like that I look at now and I geek out on this is that that show early on, our audience hated. Cause they're like, where are the burnouts? Like the vocal audience? But if you go back and look, that show has way more views than the other show did.

• 23:01Matt Farah?

  Well, yeah.

• 23:01Speaker 01

  Because it had like a longer, yeah, like a longer tail.

• 23:04Matt Farah?

  Yeah. And it went beyond the subscribers and whatever. And I wouldn't be surprised if that show shows up in people's like algorithms.

• 23:11Speaker 01

  Still to this day, because it's still just like cool car build, easy, very like formulaic to watch, simple show. So, yeah.

• 23:17Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 23:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, so anyway, I don't know. What's new, guys?

• 23:20Matt Farah?

  That's how, well, that's how you, you texted me the other day. When I said, "Save it for the show." I'm gonna put up the text. I'm gonna call, I'm gonna get the text out right here. It says, because I was like, you'd asked me about Patreon. And of course, we love our Patreon, patreon.com/thesmogentirepodcast. You can watch the show live, you can ask questions, you can, you get ad-free, you get extra podcasts, etc., etc. And, uh, and, uh, let's see. The, you said, I said, you know, I said Patreon might be all that's left after the rest of it goes to hell. And you said, "Free content is failing because the audience is no longer in control." "The free part was too tasty for them to realize what they were swallowing."

• 24:05Matt Farah?

  Which, I think that second sentence is, uh, bigger than just content.

• 24:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:10Matt Farah?

  But, so what did you mean by that? "Free content is failing because the audience is no longer in control." Guys, we gotta take one quick break for Delete Me. I have been using Delete Me, uh, for a couple of months now. And I gotta say, the, the, the number of robo-calls and spam has gone down noticeably, particularly the robo-calls, and that was my biggest, uh, my biggest concern. Right? Because we put so much of our information out there online, right? We're shopping for stuff, we're filling out forms, we're buying airplane tickets, we're getting tickets to stuff, we're doing e-commerce, it's Amazon, it's everything. But your data is a huge profit center for all these companies.

• 24:55Matt Farah?

  You can't control whether you're a target, you can't control whether your, uh, uh, your data is getting sold through data brokers until now. Now you can protect yourself with Delete Me. I signed up for Delete Me, and it was super easy. I filled out their survey, I filled out all this, uh, personal information from my address and phone numbers and email to my previous ones of those, my employment. They asked me all these questions about my history. And then Delete Me goes to work, not just right away, but in an ongoing basis. And, uh, they find all this stuff at these data broker websites, and then you get rid of it, just a couple clicks, and it's, it's just gone.

• 25:38Matt Farah?

  It could be stuff that's related to you and your job, or... Or your house, or your utilities, or whatever, you want that stuff gone. And so DeleteMe will do it, and then they'll send you regular personalized privacy reports showing what info they found, where they found it, and what they removed. And it's not just a one-time service, it's always working for you, constantly monitoring and removing the personal information that you don't want on the internet. DeleteMe does all the hard work of wiping you and your family's personal information from data broker websites. So, we got a special deal for you. Take control of your data, keep your private life private by signing up for DeleteMe. Now at a special discount for our listeners.

• 26:21Matt Farah?

  Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to joindelete.me/tire and then use promo code tire at checkout. That's 20% off. Go to joindelete.me/tire and then enter code tire at checkout. One more time, that's joindelete.me/tire and then use code tire. Thank you to DeleteMe for sponsoring today's episode, and now, back to the program.

• 26:52Speaker 01

  So, look, my career started in the magazine world. Yeah. Right? And I remember being an American magazine and being envious of the British mag, right? The reason that British books were better was because newsstand was still like 75% of where they were making their money.

• 27:09Matt Farah?

  Really?

• 27:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, and it has to do with, one, they didn't have to print as many, because they have a small, like, the amount of money it costs to move magazines across America is really expensive, right? It's not the same issue in the UK, right? To be able to get out there. So they were still seeing a larger percentage on sort of the newsstand than the advertiser side. The US also just had more ads, right? I mean, advertising in the US, especially in the automotive space, is one of the biggest, right? It's why every single ad agency in the world needs a car. Like, if you don't have an automaker, whether, and you learn this if you watch Mad Men, if you don't have an automaker, you're not an ad agency. And it's like, because of how much advertising there is in the automotive space. So... But still, there was like this 50/50, right? Like, I would get into fights with my publisher because, you know, Cadillac wanted this,

• 27:55Speaker 01

  or GM wanted us to do more of this, or they wanted this car on the cover in order to do a two-page spread, and I'd be like, "We're not gonna sell as many issues." And like, selling the issues was still the thing that had to happen to do the other part, right? And there was still enough money coming in from selling the issues that the audience had a say. And the audience got that say in a very different way back then, because it's not like they had comments, it's not like they, you know, had as much interaction, but they

• 28:18Matt Farah?

  This one sold this many issues and this one didn't.

• 28:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, not buying it. Nowadays, the algorithm has so much of that say, that the audience is actually not having that say. So you could put out a piece of content that if your audience actually saw, they would love.

• 28:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah, which we have done.

• 28:35Speaker 01

  Because it doesn't...

• 28:36Matt Farah?

  Over and over.

• 28:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, but because it doesn't check some algorithmic box, they don't get to see it, right? So like, for me, and I mean, I don't know how long you want to go, I could probably go three hours on this alone, but like, you know, you know, catch up, right? I left Hooning again over a year ago, right? I left Hooning again last, really, September, I didn't announce it till November, but, um, you know, I left and I went, worked in a different industry for an entire year, completely different space, but still in media, right? Just not automotive, but in the world of animation. Um, and kinda got to like, take a step back, and you start to see like, the same problems are here that there were in the automotive industry. And you start to realize like, okay, there's just a problem generally of what's going on with content. And, you know, and also get to sit back and kinda watch everything that happened, and we can kinda get into that at some point.

• 29:22Speaker 01

  I mean, it sounds like Mototrend's done too, as of yesterday.

• 29:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah, they canceled...

• 29:26Speaker 01

  Forty-one billion dollars in debt for the parent company, right? Where like, which is gonna trickle down to them and all that. And by the way, fact-check me on all this, because it's just, I learned this from Instagram

• 29:35Matt Farah?

  All I saw this morning was Roadkill canceled, which is a bad canary in that coal mine.

• 29:42Speaker 01

  I mean, canary? That is their coal mine.

• 29:44Matt Farah?

  That's true. The coal mine has collapsed.

• 29:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, so, you know, and but like, why did all that happen? And for me, I can't help but go back and say, you know... This model of the internet and you were in the early phase of it, right? Cause you were at Drive.

• 29:59Matt Farah?

  Early medium, yeah. And we'd made videos, me and JF for three years before Drive.

• 30:04Speaker 01

  But you realize like you guys were the cautionary tale.

• 30:06Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 30:06Speaker 01

  Because we were all sitting there in the.

• 30:09Matt Farah?

  Don't work for Amel.

• 30:11Speaker 01

  We were sitting there in the print world going, hmm, this is interesting. It's interesting to see what those guys are doing. And then you guys started crushing, right? You had all the different shows, everything was doing really well. Chris Harris, I mean, it was like you were, it was this thing that like, man, YouTube is, is a potential place to be. Right? You guys really, I think, set that standard. And then you did a paywall and the paywall was a cautionary tale.

• 30:35Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 30:35Speaker 01

  Cause the paywall was this cautionary tale of if you do this, the audience won't follow. But instead someone will fill your void.

• 30:42Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 30:43Speaker 01

  Instantly.

• 30:43Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 30:44Speaker 01

  Right? So if you look at the success of Hoonigan, partially is the paywall for Mototrend.

• 30:51Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 30:51Speaker 01

  Right? Like we were doing our thing. Mototrend was doing their thing, but Mototrend all of a sudden went behind a paywall and we picked up a ton of their audience. And I know we did because all of a sudden our audience skewed more like American car V8.

• 31:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 31:03Speaker 01

  Than they were previously, right? Before it was two Js and things like that. And all of a sudden they wanted to see more of the American cars. That stuff was doing better and, and, you know, and it was because we filled that void. And then, you know, that kept happening. And I think at first, the promise, right? Like I, you know, and I, I've three ways to think about this, but I think at first, the promise to media companies, whether it was Drive or it wasn't really our goal in the beginning, but it became our goal. Whether it was Hoonigan or Mototrend or Donut or whoever else. I think the promise was like, you're going to build this massive audience and then you're going to sell it. Tech multiplier.

• 31:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 31:39Speaker 01

  Right? And that's, and then, but no one really knew how they were going to make money.

• 31:42Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 31:43Speaker 01

  Right? I think everyone just thought, we'll figure it out. Like you do with all new emerging technology and. What happened through that period was everyone tried a different thing. So for me, I think there's three ways to make money in the content business, maybe four. The first one is, is to depend on a platform. Just the platform, right? If you depend on the platform, it's very dangerous. And I think this is something that a lot of people don't understand. One is that what it was paying five years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, is greatly reduced.

• 32:11Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 32:11Speaker 01

  Two, they can tweak the algorithm a little bit and all of a sudden you make no money that month. Also, different months pay differently, right? End of the year, December is a great time, but putting content out in January through March is really slow. So it's, it's hard to build a career.

• 32:27Matt Farah?

  And the platform favors new creators to get them hooked on creating. And they know if you're an old creator, how much they can pay you right before you quit.

• 32:38Speaker 01

  Yeah. And on top of all of that, you're now building algorithmic content.

• 32:44Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 32:44Speaker 01

  So you're now like click baiting, like you're worrying more about your thumbnails and your actual content. Because honestly, once someone clicks in, as long as they watch for 30 seconds, you get the view. That's all that really matters. And you know, you're looking at the math of this and it really justifies the type of content that people don't want people to make.

• 33:01Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 33:01Speaker 01

  Right? It's the content that people hate. But, and it also means that like-

• 33:04Matt Farah?

  Shit that makes you mad, shit that like causes drama or whatever.

• 33:09Speaker 01

  Of course, because negativity, we are, as humans, we love negativity bias, right? I just read this book, and I don't want to get too heady on this. I just read this book called Stolen Focus. And it's all about like how the algorithms weren't intended to be bad, but humans are bad.

• 33:24Matt Farah?

  Oh, this, uh, this sounds like the kind of thing that would make me really mad. I'll put it on my reading list.

• 33:30Speaker 01

  The whole position of it is this idea that like if you're driving down the block, on the left-hand side is a little boy giving his mom flowers. Right? Which is a sweet moment. And on the right side is a little boy who got hit by a car. You're gonna look on the right side, right? You just are. And the reason is because our brains are wired to negativity, because negativity is danger. And danger could prevent you from surviving.

• 33:53Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 33:53Speaker 01

  So you're more likely to focus on things that are negative. So like that's all of a sudden becomes like what most of the internet- became, right? I mean, we don't have to get into what that became for our entire society downfall of everything. And the reason why America hates America is all because of the way that that's sort of built.

• 34:10Matt Farah?

  Yeah, because if you tweak all the levers for engagement above everything else. And you don't care about anything but that engagement. You're going to end up with a bunch of fucked up people and fucked up motivators.

• 34:26Speaker 01

  Right.

• 34:26Matt Farah?

  For all kinds of stuff.

• 34:28Speaker 01

  So think about what that does to the content world, right? So now there's a certain type of content that does well, right? And like we saw this, like you get something where like if you blow your engine up or your car catches fire. That episode is going to do better.

• 34:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 34:41Speaker 01

  People are more likely to click on it. It might not be the best content, but it's just going to do better. So that that's one side, right? Is like you just service the algorithm, right? And you you just do that. And look, there's still, there's still a business there and there's still ways to do that that work. But I think it's become more and more difficult and I think that the platform itself.

• 34:58Matt Farah?

  It's unstable.

• 34:59Speaker 01

  It's it's highly unstable.

• 35:01Matt Farah?

  You're successful today, but.

• 35:03Speaker 01

  And you are at their whim.

• 35:04Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 35:04Speaker 01

  Right? I mean, I don't know if you guys remember when Facebook like completely changed.

• 35:08Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 35:09Speaker 01

  It was like January of 2016. It's the reason, one of the reasons we launched YouTube was because we were crushing on Facebook. Our Facebook content was hitting massive numbers. And then all of a sudden, one day they were like.

• 35:19Matt Farah?

  Our Facebook growth instantly stopped.

• 35:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:21Matt Farah?

  And never, never continued to.

• 35:23Speaker 01

  It completely shifted and we just gave up and then went to went to YouTube.

• 35:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 35:27Speaker 01

  And I that, you know, that's really difficult when you're one, if you're a single creator. That's dangerous, but you know, you're you're nimble, you can do whatever. But you have 40 employees.

• 35:37Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 35:38Speaker 01

  It's really difficult to forecast that kind of stuff, especially when you have like 40 employees who are like. Have 401ks and healthcare and all these things to sit there and go, how do we, you know, how do we do all this? And then second piece of it is, is the advertising side, the ad integration. And like, I don't think you have to explain too much there. The minute that someone else is paying for your content, like you're not in control. Right? So it's like, and to what point? It depends on who your partners are. I'm sure you guys work with great partners. They don't care what we say on here. You've never, you've never told me, you've never told me you can't say this today.

• 36:08Matt Farah?

  No, and we and we make it pretty. Clear and it's probably to our own financial detriment. But like, we don't want to do a show that is, we call it the, you know, the Noah's arcade. A lot, we won't have like advertisers on the show. Like shit, like I think we did it once. We had one person on the show, one time.

• 36:26Speaker 02

  The dealership tech stuff, I'm sorry dealership data.

• 36:30Matt Farah?

  Oh, the sale, no, the sales force person, maybe that was it.

• 36:33Speaker 02

  We didn't have them on, but we had, you know, content was.

• 36:35Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. We had one, one sponsored segment at once.

• 36:39Speaker 01

  And look, I, you know, I think that that sometimes can work out really well. Like we worked with partners at Hoonigan and with Ken. That were great partners and they gave us money to go do awesome stuff, right?

• 36:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's not mutually good or bad. Fenski just did a really good one with Continental. It was a new car on old tires versus an old car on new tires. Okay, so you, the point, the point comes across, even though Continental paid for it, like. Their Continentals it's on, like, all right, still a decent thing to.

• 37:07Speaker 01

  But like, I think one thing, especially for the content that Hoonigan was making was like. We definitely had to start to kind of like clean up our act a little bit because it got to that point where, well, for two things, one.

• 37:18Matt Farah?

  Mr. Scott, oh, this is, this is just too dirtbaggy.

• 37:21Speaker 01

  It's a little too dirtbaggy, it's a little too, little too dangerous. Uh, we don't want to be attached to that. You know, I mean, one of the things.

• 37:27Matt Farah?

  This engine explosion is brought to you by Motol.

• 37:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, the funny thing about it was like, the, the fan base forever. Used to be like, why didn't you guys keep making daily transmission? We could never sell a single partner to that show. No one wanted it. No one wanted it. It was the most popular show we had in the beginning. Nobody wanted that show.

• 37:46Matt Farah?

  Funny.

• 37:46Speaker 01

  And, you know, it's like, there's reasons obviously why was like that, that no one wanted that. And it was difficult because you'd be like, this show does really well. And they're like, yeah, but, you know, and it's like, all right, like, I get that.

• 37:59Speaker 01

  And, you know, so it becomes one of those things where like we self-funded that as the company. And at a certain point that can't go any longer, right? So anyway, I think the next part of it then is like the merch route, right? And the merch route only works to a certain point because all of a sudden you then have a company. That you never intended, you never intended to be a manufacturer or. Producer of whatever wears and now all of a sudden that business actually gets bigger than your content.

• 38:25Matt Farah?

  You guys had the biggest merch business of all.

• 38:27Speaker 01

  But we started as a company that was apparel. So we were sort of built for that. But I mean, there was a period of time where the people who were working on the apparel side, there was more of them than there were like on the content side. Because like there was just, we were making so much of it. And like, so that becomes this thing where like, and even then it didn't cover the costs.

• 38:45Matt Farah?

  That's crazy.

• 38:46Speaker 01

  It was just supplementing the cost, right?

• 38:48Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's crazy.

• 38:49Speaker 01

  So we went at it from like a three headed way of like, we didn't really care about the YouTube numbers. They weren't big enough to matter, right? But we, you know, we took that piece and then we took the, we took the advertising route and then the merch kind of supplemented that. But the other part that we took was like, we weren't, we weren't taking money out of the company. Right? We were paying ourselves, at least like Ken and I were paying ourselves low salaries, below market salaries. And we weren't taking money out of the company with the idea that like eventually it sells and you make your money there, right? And like, and then when you do that, the future of the brand is, is like, you don't, you don't know where that's going to go, right? And, and, and also you were, you were running the company so nimble and so lean that you have companies come in there like,

• 39:34Speaker 01

  it can always be more lean. And you're like, you'd be surprised, you'd be surprised. And, and I think that this is this unfortunate model because we haven't asked the consumer to pay for content in years. Right? Like, yeah, they might pay for it on Netflix, they may pay for it for some of those places. But like, I think in the direct relationship of like, I make content, you should buy it, has gone away. And, and it's a really sensitive conversation. Like I even just realized having this, like this conversation, people would be like, oh, fuck him, he wants to charge for content. It's like, no, I want to make the content that you want to see.

• 40:08Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 40:09Speaker 01

  Like, that's it. Like, I want to make the content I want to make. And I want to make the content you want to see. And that is unfortunately every year harder to sustain than it was 10 years ago.

• 40:20Matt Farah?

  Sure.

• 40:21Speaker 01

  And I think that that's really like where I think Patreon is interesting. I launched a I literally hit you, asked you a few questions and I launched my Patreon afterwards. And I've just been using it as like, hey, if you want to see what I'm doing with my new my new thing, like, come watch. I still realize that like, content has to live outside the paywall.

• 40:37Matt Farah?

  Yeah, you can't have all of it.

• 40:38Speaker 01

  It can't all live there.

• 40:39Matt Farah?

  Yeah, you can't have all of it.

• 40:40Speaker 01

  But I can put things there that I know won't do well.

• 40:42Matt Farah?

  Sure.

• 40:43Speaker 01

  On regular platforms that people want to watch.

• 40:45Matt Farah?

  And the fact that they exist at all there is something extra for those people who are.

• 40:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I like making content for the people who really want it. You know, like, I think, like, you know, as we grew at Hoonigan, you know, you start to like, not make content for the core audience anymore, because you're thinking like, how do we get over a million views? How do we get over two million views? Or in the June Connaissance, how do you get over 50 million views, right? And then it's like, you have to start thinking this broader and broader and broader and broader way. And like, there's a fun challenge to that. But I really enjoyed making content that I knew only 100,000 people would watch, because like, it was very focused at those 100,000 people. And 100,000 is still like a big number, like, I do realize that, but in the way that we are numbers right back then, that was a smaller video. So,

• 41:34Speaker 01

  yeah, I don't know, I and I think it's not just us, like, there's actually a great, there's this podcast that I love called, it used to be called Reply All, and now it's called Search Engine.

• 41:46Speaker 02

  Oh, they rela- they rela- oh, good, I missed that show.

• 41:49Speaker 01

  And they had Ezra Klein come in, and he basically explained like, the downfall of news media, because the platforms were never built for anyone to make money but them, and that they just don't sustain companies operating on the platforms, because it's and in where it's all gone. And you know, and they talk about things like Substack and, you know, Patreon, similar stuff for the print world. And it's really interesting kind of listening to that, because he's talking about the news world, but if you just replace the word news with automotive media, you're like, Yeah, this is exactly what's happening to our space right now where either the content is so focused on a click that it's not really the content you want. Or it's so advertiser heavy that it's either neutered because it has to be

• 42:33Speaker 01

  or it's maybe leaning a little bit too, you know, positive for something

• 42:38Matt Farah?

  Corporate.

• 42:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, corporate kind of feeling.

• 42:39Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 42:40Speaker 01

  Where I think that, you know, and I'm not saying everything's gonna be on Patreon. Like, I don't think, I don't think the model will ever go back to paid content. But it's very interesting that we live in a world where like, it's not only the paywall isn't just like, oh, I don't feel like paying for it. It's like, ah, like, you put up a paywall, how dare you make money for a, for a living?

• 43:00Matt Farah?

  That was me in 2013.

• 43:02Speaker 01

  I bet.

• 43:03Matt Farah?

  And it, and it, and it was, it was me and Harris. Everything about the paywall, even though we didn't choose it, was our fault.

• 43:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, of course.

• 43:13Matt Farah?

  Because you're the face. And so it's, it's like, you get the credit. You know, nobody was talking about the camera guys or the editors. It was like, great job, Farah, Harris.

• 43:22Speaker 01

  But you also take the blame.

• 43:23Matt Farah?

  But you also take the blame. And, and going to, to making those one-take videos really low budget and high volume was my response to, oh, you don't think film crews should earn a living? Well, here, we're gonna get rid of them and show you how that, how this works out. Turns out, it worked out well. But only if you can crank out.

• 43:45Speaker 01

  Right.

• 43:45Matt Farah?

  You know, four videos a week, five videos a week, which is a lot.

• 43:49Speaker 01

  I, I just think we've created a creative world right now where burnout is really high. Right? Like, your likelihood of making a living in this space as a new coming creator to it, not working for a company that can protect you and can give you these things when there are downtimes seems to be about three to five years.

• 44:09Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 44:09Speaker 01

  Right? And then there seems to be a ceiling that you hit. And there's a few guys who blow right past it. And there's people who've done very well at this, right? Like, obviously, Cletus. But Cletus has a whole pay side of what he's doing.

• 44:19Matt Farah?

  Well, he has a whole other thing, yeah, yeah.

• 44:21Speaker 01

  And he's got the event side of it that works. And, you know, obviously, Adam LZ and Weston Champlin. Like, a lot of these guys have broken through. But for every one of them, there is, there's hundreds of other people who have just kind of hit a wall where at first it seemed like it was doing well. And then they, it's like, it's like the old drug. trope of like their first hit is

• 44:39Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 44:40Speaker 01

  It's like that first couple of videos you put up do really well.

• 44:43Matt Farah?

  When you, when YouTube is what one thing they're doing is favoring those new creators.

• 44:48Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 44:48Matt Farah?

  They'll get, cause I don't know about you, but like I'm, I'm like a quote victim of this as well.

• 44:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:54Matt Farah?

  Not as a creator, but as a viewer.

• 44:57Matt Farah?

  I don't really pay attention to any subscriptions anymore.

• 44:59Speaker 01

  No, right.

• 45:00Matt Farah?

  But you know what I do is I go to youtube.com on my browser and I just see what's there. And so I as a viewer am so susceptible to. Now I also literally old school, go to the search bar and I have like five channels that I like. And I actively check what they've made. Um, but so much of it is just what's fed to me and they have total black box control.

• 45:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:25Matt Farah?

  And I don't know if it's this channel's first video where they're fucking 500th or 5000th.

• 45:30Speaker 01

  And like, look, I will obviously am all supporting of like the ability for new creators to get access. Cause otherwise you end up creating a world where you don't get back in again.

• 45:40Matt Farah?

  Sure.

• 45:41Speaker 01

  Right? Like, I get that, but I think that there's, it's sort of a churn, right? Like bring the new ones in, get rid of the old ones, bring the new ones in, get rid of the old ones. And for people who've dedicated their lives and a ton of money to doing this. And then for it to kind of just end and then it's like, then where do you go from there?

• 45:57Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 45:57Speaker 01

  You know, like what's next? It just seems like a broken model to me cause it, and it's not just affecting us. It's like sort of affect, it's affecting everything in the media space. I mean, even if you look at Hollywood is screwed, Netflix is screwed. Everybody's screwed right now in content, you know, there's just like, there's too much of it.

• 46:13Matt Farah?

  We had just enough time for mainstream society to understand that being a content creator was a career.

• 46:22Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 46:22Matt Farah?

  Just enough time for that to happen.

• 46:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:25Matt Farah?

  Only for it to like, not be possible for it to be a career.

• 46:28Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, look, as a guy who went to college for magazines.

• 46:32Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 46:33Speaker 01

  And then watched the magazine industry crumble eight years out of college.

• 46:36Matt Farah?

  I gotta tell you though, of all the shit I did, like working for the, the actual print magazine is like one of the more rewarding things I do.

• 46:43Speaker 01

  You know, I'm now a Rodent Track contributor.

• 46:45Matt Farah?

  Are you?

• 46:46Speaker 01

  I've now written two articles.

• 46:47Matt Farah?

  Nice. What did you write?

• 46:48Speaker 01

  Um, the first thing they had me write was, uh, the Audi 4000. It was like our top, it was like our favorite drivers cars.

• 46:55Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. From like a couple of issues ago? Where they interviewed all the people?

• 46:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I had my Audi 4000, which like they, they basically asked me for my list. I gave them my list.

• 47:05Matt Farah?

  And then they asked you to write about one?

• 47:06Speaker 01

  And then they asked me what my personal cars were. And like, I'm like, I have a shipbox 4000, but I put it on the list because I just said like, there's something about it I like. And it was like the beater was the, the angle for that. And then I wrote, um, a story on, oh, my brain's not working, but, uh...

• 47:22Matt Farah?

  Another Red Bull, maybe?

• 47:23Speaker 01

  No, no, no. Yeah, seriously, right. It was, uh, it was, um, it was, it was part of the Le Mans package.

• 47:29Matt Farah?

  Oh, okay.

• 47:30Speaker 01

  Is that out yet?

• 47:31Matt Farah?

  Uh...

• 47:32Speaker 01

  I'm not sure. It was the, it was, it was part of the Le Mans package in the specialized episode, issue.

• 47:37Matt Farah?

  Oh, that was a couple, a couple ago.

• 47:38Speaker 01

  Where everything was super specialized.

• 47:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah, there's a few ago.

• 47:40Speaker 01

  And I wrote the one on the, um, I'm blanking on their names now, but it was like two designers from Peugeot who built the car that would, the only goal was to set the fastest speed on the muscle.

• 47:50Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 47:52Speaker 01

  So, um, and honestly, I do it because I miss writing.

• 47:56Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 47:56Speaker 01

  For magazines. And there was also a small part of me that I went through this really weird, uh, circle of life with Road and Track, which is when I was a kid, I liked Road and Track and had a subscription to it. It was the one of the buff books I had a sub to. And then when I was building the concept for Zero to 60, I was taking 1970's Road and Track and 1970's Car and Driver, right? And using that as sort of a template of what I wanted to make, because the writing was really good.

• 48:22Matt Farah?

  It was crazy, yeah.

• 48:23Speaker 01

  Rocky and Tara and stuff like that. I mean, especially the Car and Driver stuff, because they were living...

• 48:27Matt Farah?

  Those guys were like real...

• 48:28Speaker 01

  Well, they were living in, they were living in New York City and rubbing elbows with the guys who were writing for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. So they like held themselves to like a much higher level than just a standard auto journalist. So I looked at that as a thing. And, you know, then obviously we went, we did Zero to 60, and we were this weird sort of bastard mag that then kind of became an industry darling. Um, but, you know, we were never like the buff books. And then when Larry Webster redesigned, uh, Road and Track, he said to me, oh, Zero 60 was like a big part of my inspiration and design, you know, and the rework of road and track. And that's crazy to me to think like this book, which is such an institution.

• 49:04Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 49:04Speaker 01

  Was something that inspired me and then inspired that. So, you know, when they contacted me to write for it, I was like, oh, this feels like a circle I should be a part of.

• 49:11Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 49:11Speaker 01

  I enjoy it.

• 49:12Matt Farah?

  That's cool.

• 49:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, I still write my shit 15 minutes before it's due. That hasn't changed, but you know.

• 49:17Matt Farah?

  When they asked me to set lap times for the, for a group test, that's when I was like, I'm in this game. All right, we have passed this test.

• 49:25Speaker 01

  Nice, nice.

• 49:25Matt Farah?

  That one's coming out.

• 49:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't get that to that level. I get to like, go do some research and write about something.

• 49:29Matt Farah?

  All I ever cared about was being quick enough to do that job.

• 49:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:33Matt Farah?

  That was it. I don't need to even win races. Just be the guy they put on the fucking, in the cars for comparison test.

• 49:38Speaker 01

  And let's be honest, not that many journalists are quick.

• 49:41Matt Farah?

  Not that many are, no.

• 49:42Speaker 01

  No.

• 49:43Matt Farah?

  Uh, and I'm only okay. There's ones that are quicker than me, but and.

• 49:46Speaker 01

  I haven't been on like a regular racetrack with you, but I've been karting with you and you were like way faster than you should have been in a cart. You were like.

• 49:54Matt Farah?

  I was a good, I was really good at cart.

• 49:55Speaker 01

  That 250 pounds that you talk about cycling, you had like 75 extra pounds on back then. And it was you, you're a big part of that then. And I remember showing up and you worked me at GPNY and I was like, okay.

• 50:08Matt Farah?

  I was also, I was club champ at GPNY.

• 50:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:11Matt Farah?

  That was, that was my home track.

• 50:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:13Matt Farah?

  I won the over 200 pound class.

• 50:15Speaker 01

  Nice.

• 50:15Matt Farah?

  Yeah. It's good. Those, them's were the days.

• 50:18Speaker 01

  The thing I want to go is check out, talk to me on karting. Do you see the K1 circuit thing that they built?

• 50:22Matt Farah?

  No.

• 50:23Speaker 01

  So K1 Speed has built a thing called K1 Circuit out like Riverside area and it's like a proper.

• 50:30Matt Farah?

  Outdoors or indoors?

• 50:32Speaker 01

  Outdoors, competition level karting track. And you can bring your own cart there and they're renting garages.

• 50:37Matt Farah?

  Get the fuck out of here.

• 50:38Speaker 01

  I think I want to buy a cart now.

• 50:39Matt Farah?

  I think I might buy.

• 50:40Speaker 01

  Because it's only 40 minutes from my farm.

• 50:42Matt Farah?

  Really?

• 50:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:43Matt Farah?

  Is it like, do they buy Adams or something?

• 50:45Speaker 01

  Um, no, no, no. Look, look at this thing.

• 50:48Matt Farah?

  What?

• 50:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly like.

• 50:50Speaker 02

  This is very legitimate.

• 50:51Matt Farah?

  How the fuck did they build this in our backyard? We don't know?

• 50:53Speaker 01

  And no one knew about it.

• 50:54Matt Farah?

  This is the worst marketing plan in the history of marketing plans?

• 50:57Speaker 01

  By the way, speaking of algorithms, I got served it on Instagram.

• 51:00Matt Farah?

  Oh, seriously?

• 51:01Speaker 01

  So, yeah.

• 51:02Matt Farah?

  For real?

• 51:03Speaker 02

  Wow, this is awesome.

• 51:04Matt Farah?

  This looks sick?

• 51:04Speaker 02

  This is like thermal but for carts. And hopefully it's expensive.

• 51:07Matt Farah?

  Oh dude, Zach, we might need a company car.

• 51:10Speaker 02

  Let's do it.

• 51:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:11Matt Farah?

  Except the question is, do we buy a company Legends car?

• 51:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:15Matt Farah?

  Ezra Dyer bought a Legends car. Man, is it fucking tempting?

• 51:19Speaker 02

  He bought it to quote, "share with his kid" and then he just runs hill climbs with it.

• 51:21Matt Farah?

  And yeah, dude, he ran a hill. He, I just read his car and driver's story, it was great.

• 51:26Speaker 01

  I was actually gonna ask them if I could run a Sierra car there.

• 51:28Matt Farah?

  Yes.

• 51:29Speaker 01

  Cause the Sierra car there would be good fun.

• 51:31Matt Farah?

  Do you have one?

• 51:31Speaker 01

  Like give them a few of them. Well, I would get one if I could go there with it, so.

• 51:35Matt Farah?

  Can we, uh, go, uh, go to the, uh, let's see the track. Let's see what the track, sorry. Sorry, we're getting a little inside baseball here, folks, but there is a new fucking racetrack in our city and we need to cover it.

• 51:45Speaker 01

  Well, and here's the thing, even if you're not from our city, since K1 Speed is across the country, they could be opening ones elsewhere, which, you know, promote that.

• 51:52Matt Farah?

  Wow, that reminds me, remember in New Zealand, we went to that sick go-kart track? This is what that reminds me of.

• 51:57Speaker 01

  Eleven meters of elevation gain.

• 51:59Matt Farah?

  Wow.

• 51:59Speaker 01

  Someone do the, uh.

• 52:00Speaker 02

  Uh, thirty-three.

• 52:01Speaker 01

  There you go, three times.

• 52:03Matt Farah?

  Where is this? Is it Riverside?

• 52:04Speaker 01

  It's like outside of Riverside, yeah.

• 52:06Matt Farah?

  Oh, man.

• 52:07Speaker 01

  So.

• 52:07Matt Farah?

  So that's far enough, I'm not going every weekend, but that's pretty, that's still doable.

• 52:11Speaker 01

  You can come out, you can come to the farm, have some avocados, hang out.

• 52:15Matt Farah?

  I thought your farm was like more south than this.

• 52:17Speaker 01

  It is, but it's only forty, like the way, yeah, it's like forty-five minutes off. I'm off the fifteen, so, yeah, so, once you're out there, you're out there.

• 52:24Matt Farah?

  Wow, alright, look at that.

• 52:26Speaker 02

  That is no joke.

• 52:27Matt Farah?

  Goddamn, that looks awesome.

• 52:29Speaker 01

  I also, by the way, I like that they have the little like Paul Richard.

• 52:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, they do. Looks good to run off there.

• 52:33Matt Farah?

  For the drone shots.

• 52:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, it makes it for that.

• 52:36Matt Farah?

  That's fucking cool. I wonder if they're gonna have, uh, autocross on there too? They'll run cars autocross, that could be fun.

• 52:43Speaker 01

  And you do that, next thing you know, them dirty drifters are there.

• 52:45Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 52:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, next thing you know, it's Adams.

• 52:48Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 52:49Speaker 01

  And then after that, it's a rallycross track.

• 52:50Matt Farah?

  Adams is a good level of grime though. Shout out to Troy Adams, he's alright. Yeah, wow. Alright, well now we have something new to look forward to.

• 52:59Speaker 02

  We should go.

• 52:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah, we should, we should definitely go. Are there rental carts, gas or electric?

• 53:03Speaker 01

  I think electric is the rentals, but they'll also let you run gas.

• 53:06Matt Farah?

  Yeah, those are electric.

• 53:07Speaker 02

  Karting class?

• 53:07Speaker 01

  No.

• 53:08Speaker 02

  Hell yes.

• 53:08Matt Farah?

  Those go up, those really look electric.

• 53:10Speaker 01

  I saw a radiator on it.

• 53:11Matt Farah?

  Is that a radiator or a battery?

• 53:12Speaker 01

  Oh, that might be the battery.

• 53:13Matt Farah?

  That looks like a battery in the floors.

• 53:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, cuz it's usually, yeah, that's electric cuz usually the engine's on the other side on a gas cart, so.

• 53:19Matt Farah?

  Okay. Dude.

• 53:22Speaker 01

  But I thought it was cool that you could bring your own cart. Because it's like, yeah, I mean, I think they're just open, having like open practice or whatever, but. We could create our own internal race series.

• 53:31Matt Farah?

  We could definitely waste some money on this, Zach, for sure.

• 53:33Speaker 01

  I like that every time I'm here, we talk about a new race series we're gonna do. Last time, it was the, um, Toyota, uh, Previa.

• 53:44Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 53:44Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, Previa Rallycross?

• 53:46Speaker 01

  I don't, that is the most response I got from this podcast.

• 53:50Matt Farah?

  People that want the Previa.

• 53:51Speaker 01

  Either trying to sell me their dad's Previa, alright? Or people who are like, "I'm in." Like, you say it, I'm in. And I'm like, "You live in Wisconsin," and they're like, "I'll buy a trailer too." I was like, "Okay, this thing's got legs."

• 54:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 54:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 54:04Speaker 01

  The mid-engine van race series.

• 54:07Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that would be great. Uh, Previa Cross would be, would be excellent as well. I'm still, Formula Hogwala, I think, could be a great

• 54:16Speaker 02

  So dangerous.

• 54:17Matt Farah?

  video series, you know?

• 54:18Speaker 01

  No, what is this one?

• 54:19Matt Farah?

  You know what Hogwala is? In, in, in fucking Saudi, in Dubai, the, the front wheel drive?

• 54:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 54:26Matt Farah?

  Where they just like send it?

• 54:27Speaker 02

  Hundred mile an hour, exactly.

• 54:28Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 54:29Speaker 01

  My goodness.

• 54:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Pro. We could make this a pro.

• 54:33Speaker 01

  Do you have mannequins on the side of the road that you get points for killing?

• 54:35Matt Farah?

  We could.

• 54:36Speaker 01

  You just fill in with like bags of thick blood?

• 54:38Matt Farah?

  Dude, just have Papadakis build us a fleet of Camrys. Like, let's go!

• 54:44Speaker 01

  It's Ultima's vs. Camrys.

• 54:46Matt Farah?

  Yes!

• 54:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:47Matt Farah?

  It's the nothing left to live for, negative credit.

• 54:52Matt Farah?

  I'm upside down in this Camry.

• 54:54Speaker 01

  The BQE bomber.

• 54:55Speaker 02

  You need walls on both sides, so it doesn't get too out of hand.

• 54:58Matt Farah?

  Yeah, so that's fuck, but we could do, uh, we could definitely do a karting series.

• 55:04Speaker 01

  We need to do that. That'd be a good one.

• 55:06Matt Farah?

  I need a new sport to get into. Played pickleball for the first time yesterday.

• 55:10Speaker 01

  How was that?

• 55:10Matt Farah?

  Made me feel very old.

• 55:12Speaker 01

  Yeah. It's basically like geriatric tennis.

• 55:15Matt Farah?

  It is, yeah, it is.

• 55:16Speaker 01

  It's like tennis for people who have had knee surgery.

• 55:18Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's like slow tennis or big ping pong is basically what it is.

• 55:24Speaker 02

  It's less running than tennis, right?

• 55:26Speaker 01

  It's a sport that's built to also still hold a can of beer while you're playing though.

• 55:29Matt Farah?

  You can play, in fact, I was, it was like my neighborhood got together and play and, uh, there was a lot of alcohol there. Like I wasn't drinking, but these guys were, yeah, they, there was a charcuterie board and a bunch of booze while they were playing.

• 55:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:44Matt Farah?

  But I need, I need a better sport than that.

• 55:46Speaker 02

  Did your hand-eye coordination go up for the first drink and then fall off?

• 55:49Matt Farah?

  I didn't drink, but I'll, it took me a minute to, I'd never played before and it took me a minute to get this pacing of a wiffle ball.

• 55:55Speaker 01

  Is it a sport or an activity?

• 55:57Matt Farah?

  It's a game.

• 55:58Speaker 01

  It's a game.

• 55:58Speaker 02

  I think they're trying to make it a sport. They're trying to push it on ESPN and stuff and like make a league.

• 56:02Speaker 01

  It'll be on the Olympics before long.

• 56:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, they're trying.

• 56:05Matt Farah?

  Um, I mean, it was like, it's fun enough. It's, it's, it's enough like tennis, but like, I'd rather be racing go-karts.

• 56:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 56:14Matt Farah?

  Brand new go-kart track. That sounds a lot more fun. Uh.

• 56:17Speaker 01

  Well, I've got a little boy now who will soon be of racing age, so I'm feeling like that's the perfect timing. Get him in a cadet cart, you know, get going.

• 56:25Matt Farah?

  How old?

• 56:26Speaker 01

  He's gonna be five in a month from now.

• 56:29Matt Farah?

  Oh, wow. Can you get like Josh Kales's drift power wheelers?

• 56:32Speaker 01

  I'm sure, I'm sure I could get him up.

• 56:34Matt Farah?

  That would be a good place to start. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 56:36Speaker 01

  Although right now he's really into heavy equipment. Like he liked cars. The other day he told me, I said to him, who's car do you like more? Mine or mommy's? Like our main car. And I drive an RS2 wagon every day and he, and my wife drives an LR4.

• 56:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 56:49Speaker 01

  He's like, mommy's. I'm like, why? He's like, cause it's taller.

• 56:53Matt Farah?

  I mean, when you're small, when you're small, tall, yeah. But you got a tractor and shit too, so.

• 57:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, I've got a, I've got a Kubota with a backhoe.

• 57:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah, if you're a kid and there's a tractor on site, who gives a fuck about it?

• 57:07Speaker 01

  Digging holes.

• 57:08Matt Farah?

  Something tells me.

• 57:09Speaker 01

  I gotta tell you, fuck being a kid. If you're an adult and there's a tractor, you're like, wow, that looks pretty fun right now.

• 57:14Speaker 02

  Well, how long has Dig This been open in Vegas?

• 57:16Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 57:17Speaker 02

  A decade? I mean, that is a successful business.

• 57:19Matt Farah?

  Construction fantasy camp?

• 57:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, I know exactly what it is.

• 57:21Speaker 02

  Right.

• 57:22Speaker 01

  I really think like if you're at the, if you're at a track and they're like, okay, you have an option. You can either take this Corvette ZO6 around the track. Or we will let you use this massive excavator. Just fuck shit. Uh, what would you choose?

• 57:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, you choose the power.

• 57:37Speaker 01

  You've driven enough ZO6s around track, you'd probably.

• 57:39Matt Farah?

  And I've driven excavators and they're way better. I knocked the building down that was here. I personally knocked it down.

• 57:45Speaker 01

  I forgot about that.

• 57:45Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 57:46Speaker 01

  That's cool.

• 57:47Matt Farah?

  It was, and I knocked it down by side swiping it with the bucket. Like, it was the best shit imaginable.

• 57:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 57:56Matt Farah?

  It was so great.

• 57:57Speaker 01

  I could see.

• 57:58Matt Farah?

  Everything, I wish you could just do, you could, ah, could you do that? There's probably some insurance thing. You couldn't have that experience that the public could get by.

• 58:08Speaker 02

  You set up a wall, knock it over, set up a wall, knock it over.

• 58:10Matt Farah?

  If you gotta do control demo, they could have, you know, they could have it be.

• 58:13Speaker 02

  Demolition.

• 58:14Matt Farah?

  If you have a Groupon.

• 58:15Speaker 02

  Come on down.

• 58:18Matt Farah?

  It was very fun though. Yeah, but if you got a five-year-old, the tractor is, that's it.

• 58:22Speaker 01

  He loves the tractor.

• 58:23Matt Farah?

  Can you drive the tractor?

• 58:25Speaker 01

  He can't drive the tractor, but he can operate the, uh, the actual, um, excavator, the backhoe part?

• 58:31Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 58:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, like, cause it's just joysticks. He can figure that out.

• 58:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah, like a five-year-old can do a joystick.

• 58:35Speaker 01

  CPS is on their way to my house now saying that, but he can do it, so. Um, he can't really, like, he could sit on my lap and run the controls, but he's not big enough for that. But he can drive, I let him drive the, uh, like the UTV we have on the property, like, you know, on my lap and stuff.

• 58:47Matt Farah?

  That's awesome. It's important to have that.

• 58:49Speaker 02

  Is the tractor steering wheel very easy to move or hard?

• 58:51Speaker 01

  It's pretty simple. Yeah, it's like, it's like a hydro power assist kinda thing, so.

• 58:56Matt Farah?

  Five's pretty young though for a tractor.

• 58:57Speaker 02

  No, totally. I was just curious, like, if it's a muscle thing and when he's seven, he can do whatever.

• 59:01Speaker 01

  He can't really reach the pedals. The thing so.

• 59:03Speaker 02

  Put those blocks on his seat.

• 59:04Matt Farah?

  But he like understands how to drive.

• 59:06Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, he's got power wheels and all that kind of stuff.

• 59:10Matt Farah?

  Of course, as his.

• 59:12Speaker 01

  It's hard because you don't want to be like the football dad and be like, you like, you love racing cars. Between myself and my wife, who both like cars. It's kind of hard for him not to like them. So he's really more into trucks. Yeah, I mean, he's if he's real close to tall socks.

• 59:30Speaker 01

  There's time to bring them back.

• 59:31Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of time to pivot. So, OK, so we've got the Kubota tractor. We've got the RS2, which you drove up here. I haven't seen that car in a very long time. Don't you also have an S2?

• 59:42Speaker 01

  I had an S2 bomb, but I sold it to a friend. I came home from Europe with two of the same car. One had an R, the other one just was an S2. I had an R and an RS2 in the same color.

• 59:52Matt Farah?

  And did they drive noticeably different?

• 59:57Speaker 01

  The RS2 is slightly quicker. If I'm being honest, the S2 was in better condition. Like, the RS2 was a little bit more rough, like, not like visually, it looked really good, but it just had like a ton of like, you know, small little problems with the kind of thing, so. But they're pretty much the same car.

• 1:00:12Matt Farah?

  And, OK, and then you have that old green rabbit. Is that a GTI or a rabbit?

• 1:00:18Speaker 01

  No, it's a rabbit. So it's the first year they came in here. So it's a 75 swallow tail, which basically means the rear, the rear like panel has a like a swallow cut in it, which just makes it more unique. So I have that, which is a whopping 50 horsepower. And then that's it right there. Yeah.

• 1:00:35Matt Farah?

  We should do, what year is it?

• 1:00:37Speaker 01

  Seventy-five.

• 1:00:38Matt Farah?

  Fifty horsepower. The pow is 57. We should have a drag.

• 1:00:48Matt Farah?

  One liter, 57 horsepower.

• 1:00:49Speaker 01

  And this is 1.5 liter.

• 1:00:51Matt Farah?

  How many gears do you have? Four?

• 1:00:53Speaker 01

  Four speeds.

• 1:00:53Matt Farah?

  Four gears?

• 1:00:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, tops at 90 miles an hour.

• 1:00:55Matt Farah?

  Hannah does not. It tops at 70. Three-speed auto.

• 1:00:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, you're losing everything to the.

• 1:01:01Matt Farah?

  It's not good.

• 1:01:01Speaker 01

  Torque converters eating everything there. We got to manual swap that baby.

• 1:01:06Matt Farah?

  They sold them as manuals, yeah, but Hannah, Hannah just, it's a brunch car, so that looks great, though.

• 1:01:11Speaker 02

  That's a great looking car.

• 1:01:12Speaker 01

  I love it.

• 1:01:12Matt Farah?

  That's been. Repainted, right?

• 1:01:14Speaker 01

  No, that's original paint.

• 1:01:14Matt Farah?

  Really?

• 1:01:15Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's got some rough spots on it. It's had some rust on it.

• 1:01:19Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 1:01:19Speaker 01

  It looks really good in photos. It photographs well.

• 1:01:21Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's a 12 footer with a cellphone?

• 1:01:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, but it, it, uh, it's, like, I bought it, um, I bought it with the intent of immediately swapping in a 16 valve and doing all the stuff and whatever. And then, like, I get it, I get weird about things sometimes. I'm like, oh, you know what, though? I really want it to run under its own power first. Like, it's original power.

• 1:01:43Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:43Speaker 01

  It was, like, really close to running, but wasn't running. So I spent, like, a few months just, like, sorting all these, like, random parts to get it running. And then it was up and running, and I was like, I'm gonna drive it for a week, and then I'll tear it apart.

• 1:01:54Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:55Speaker 01

  Like, just drive it for a week. And that was three years ago. And I've just been driving it as it is.

• 1:01:59Matt Farah?

  Did you just, like, be like, actually, this is fine? Or did you?

• 1:02:03Speaker 01

  As long as I don't, as long as I don't leave Long Beach, it's great. Right? Like, oh, this cruiser out of Long Beach, it's like the perfect cruiser, like it's

• 1:02:10Matt Farah?

  It's one step above a golf cart.

• 1:02:12Speaker 01

  It's just peppy enough to, like, merge.

• 1:02:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:15Speaker 01

  But the other day, I drove out to San Dimas with a friend, and like, I was just like, you know, maxed at 75 miles an hour.

• 1:02:23Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:23Speaker 01

  Just like in the car, you're like, eh, maybe it needs a

• 1:02:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah, driving a car at VMAX sucks.

• 1:02:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:02:30Matt Farah?

  It's like

• 1:02:31Speaker 01

  And also, there's no tax. You're just like, I hope, I don't know.

• 1:02:34Matt Farah?

  Is there a rev limiter?

• 1:02:36Speaker 01

  No, there's

• 1:02:37Matt Farah?

  Yeah, there's nothing, right?

• 1:02:38Speaker 01

  It's just a carbureted car, like, yeah.

• 1:02:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah. The engine stops when it explodes.

• 1:02:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You just listen, you're like, that sounds more metallic. I'll bring the revs down a little bit.

• 1:02:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, you listen to valve float.

• 1:02:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. So

• 1:02:52Matt Farah?

  It would, I mean, even if you put, like, the fucking most basic ass later, you know, Mark III swap or something in it, it would be

• 1:03:01Speaker 01

  Even just a

• 1:03:01Matt Farah?

  So fast.

• 1:03:02Speaker 01

  GTI, because I have a, I also have a Mark I GTI that's on the East Coast.

• 1:03:07Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:07Speaker 01

  And like, that is great. Like, it's really good as it is.

• 1:03:10Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:10Speaker 01

  So, I don't know.

• 1:03:11Matt Farah?

  It's a great, this little rabbit is, it's great looking.

• 1:03:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:03:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03:15Speaker 02

  Good color.

• 1:03:15Speaker 01

  It's become like a weird, I actually just, uh, I wrote a column for Performance Volkswagen Magazine, PW, and I wrote my My whole column about this thing that was like, I bought a Ferrari. But like, I realized that my identity is a rabbit.

• 1:03:30Matt Farah?

  Sure.

• 1:03:30Speaker 01

  Like, I was able to get to a successful point in life to, I mean, I bought a used Ferrari. Still. A three sixty, but like, I was able to get that, right? It's the most expensive car I've ever bought. And, like, I don't drive it. It just doesn't like, I'm not saying I don't like it.

• 1:03:44Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:03:44Speaker 01

  Like, every time I'm in it, I'm like, I should drive this more often.

• 1:03:47Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:47Speaker 01

  But I like walk past that and my nine eleven and get into my rabbit or my RS two. I like the like, the, if you know, you know.

• 1:03:56Matt Farah?

  Sure.

• 1:03:56Speaker 01

  Kind of vibe of cars like, or just that's one. I mean, this is the car that makes old ladies happy.

• 1:04:00Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:04:01Speaker 01

  Like, everybody loves this car. Like, they just smile at it. Like, oh, that's so cute. The color, the color works. It like, it hits.

• 1:04:07Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:08Speaker 01

  But, uh, yeah, I just kind of got to a point where I was like, you know what, like, I think I'm, like, you know, I built, I, I mean, I've built some monster machines and things like that. And they're all just a pain in the ass. They're all just like an absolute pain in the ass. That's probably how you feel about your Mustang, was probably that.

• 1:04:22Matt Farah?

  Uh, no, the Mustang, well, I think I've, I think, uh, it, it was a pain in the ass. And I think I've pushed all that out of my head and I only remember the good times now.

• 1:04:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like a psycho ex-girlfriend.

• 1:04:35Matt Farah?

  Yeah, but I, I don't really have a desire for like, these big custom projects anymore. I mean, even my, what we, we put a different engine in my Porsche, but it was like, yeah, you take it and call me, you know, what it's done. I'm not physically dealing with that.

• 1:04:48Speaker 01

  Yeah. I'm not that far through therapy yet. Like, I still dream of the most insane engine swaps. I mean, I have a Toyota A eighty-six Corolla.

• 1:04:58Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:58Speaker 01

  That I'm putting a VR six in.

• 1:05:00Matt Farah?

  An old one?

• 1:05:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05:01Matt Farah?

  Or a new one?

• 1:05:02Speaker 01

  An old Corolla.

• 1:05:02Matt Farah?

  A Hachi.

• 1:05:03Speaker 01

  A Hachi, yeah.

• 1:05:03Matt Farah?

  With a VR six?

• 1:05:04Speaker 01

  Except technically, mine's a coupe, but yeah.

• 1:05:06Matt Farah?

  But, um, that'll fit?

• 1:05:08Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 1:05:09Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:09Speaker 01

  Sure. I wouldn't say it fits easily, but it's fitting. Um, I have to run a dry sump on it to get it to fit.

• 1:05:17Matt Farah?

  Oh, that's funny.

• 1:05:17Speaker 01

  Like, the levels of like, now it's a full-blown race car, just to get the engine to fit in, just because I wanted to do something different. Yeah, that's it right there.

• 1:05:23Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Dude, that's awesome. And I saw your fucking other Audi's not even done. Your coupe, not your coupe ninety?

• 1:05:28Speaker 01

  No, it runs, but it doesn't drive.

• 1:05:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:30Speaker 01

  It's actually sitting at BBI.

• 1:05:31Matt Farah?

  I saw it last week when I went for an oil change.

• 1:05:33Speaker 01

  Which, by the way, is the shittiest thing I did to Batim, because I just, we, I was like, I was moving all my stuff out of Hoonigan. And there was a bunch of stuff there. And Batim's trailer was there, and it was empty. And I had nowhere for the coupe to go, so I just. The trailer and then I did and then like I meant to tell him I wasn't like that. I wasn't that much of a I wasn't that much of a prick, but I meant to tell him like, oh, hey, by the way, and then I just forgot and like life went on. And a month and a half later, they went to go open the trailer like it got brought back to BBI. It was parked against the wall because it was around holidays, you know, and it gets parked against the wall. And they just forgot about it like they just forgot that like, you know, and I forgot about it. And then they opened it one day and he just sent me a photo and was like, do you know this is here?

• 1:06:18Speaker 01

  I'm like, oh, yes, surprise. So I now have.

• 1:06:22Matt Farah?

  Surprise, you now get to figure out how to make this run.

• 1:06:25Speaker 01

  Well, it's actually that it's like I my, the story of my nine 11 was my nine 11 was the car that I never had off the road. Right? Like of all the other cars, cars would go down, the nine 11 was like, it was just, I wanted it to always be simple. And I wanted to be able to just drive it. So like if something broke on it, it was the one car I would I'd bring to BBI. And I would just be like, fix it. Right? Like everything else, I try to fix myself and I just open a can of worms and break it more. Right? But with that car was like, yeah, like I just want to keep this thing running. So I have what seemed like a boost leak at seven pounds of pressure, like it would just open up. Right? So I'm like, all right, uh, bring it to Batim. He's like, oh, we'll smoke it. We'll see what the problem is. He's like, oh, it's a, it's, you know, unfortunately it is a intake manifold gasket like engine out.

• 1:07:08Speaker 01

  I'm like, all right, fine. So he's like, I'll pull the engine. We'll get, we'll get it sorted. We'll have it back in there real quickly.

• 1:07:15Speaker 01

  Two years later, the engine goes back in for two reasons. One, we also started the Hunapig project.

• 1:07:21Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:07:22Speaker 01

  And like I'm on like the buddy favorite program.

• 1:07:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:07:25Speaker 01

  Now all of a sudden like we're building this big project. So like all of the efforts gone into that. But second, you know, by the way, I had 53,000 miles on this engine.

• 1:07:36Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:36Speaker 01

  Batim opens up and goes, you know what?

• 1:07:39Matt Farah?

  While we're in there.

• 1:07:40Speaker 01

  While we're in there, we rebuilt the whole thing, forged internals, the whole thing. So he finally like said, I haven't heard from him for like four or five months about my car. Like I've talked to him every day about the Hunapig and he just texts me. Hey, do you wanna order the Motec or should I? And I was like, for the pig? He's like, no, for your car. I'm like, wait, why are we putting Motec in my car? He's like, well, this'll be like, he's like, I'm thinking like 800 to like a thousand. I'm like, no, this is supposed to be my normal car. Like, no, no, no, no, like, I don't wanna start it with a laptop. Like, just, come on. And he's like, alright, so I now have an 800 horsepower capable 400 horsepower car.

• 1:08:19Matt Farah?

  Great, yeah.

• 1:08:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, probably run for a long time. Yeah, I just drove it the other day, I hadn't driven it in four months.

• 1:08:24Matt Farah?

  400 horsepower in that car is a lot.

• 1:08:26Speaker 01

  I have to say, if you do not have fun with a 9, if you don't know how to drive a 911 with 400 horsepower, you don't know how to drive a 911. Like, 400 horsepower is, in an air-cooled car, is a ton of fun. So, no traction control, no nannies, no nothing, it just does its thing.

• 1:08:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's so much.

• 1:08:41Speaker 01

  And I've got, you know, I've got like 315s out back, like, the thing just grabs and rips, it's super fun.

• 1:08:46Matt Farah?

  That's a good car.

• 1:08:47Speaker 01

  I hadn't driven it in four months, and I just, I actually just filmed this video with Vinny. Vinny made a video about RWB, cuz you know, everyone's talking about RWB right now. Are you, are you not paying attention to this?

• 1:08:57Matt Farah?

  No, why is everyone talking about RWB?

• 1:08:58Speaker 01

  Do we live in a different algorithm?

• 1:09:00Matt Farah?

  Maybe. Oh shit. Yeah.

• 1:09:02Speaker 01

  So...

• 1:09:03Matt Farah?

  My algorithm feeds me like leftist political shit, what does yours feed you? RWB videos?

• 1:09:08Speaker 01

  Mine, mine feeds me, um, RWB conspiracy and civil war. It's pretty much all I can think of.

• 1:09:14Matt Farah?

  Wow, RWB conspiracy?

• 1:09:16Speaker 01

  And really good farm stuff.

• 1:09:17Matt Farah?

  What is the conspiracy?

• 1:09:19Speaker 01

  Alright, I'll, I'll back it out a little.

• 1:09:20Matt Farah?

  All of this is alleged?

• 1:09:21Speaker 01

  I'll back it out a little bit. So, uh, it's not even conspiracy, but I'll back it out. So, about a few weeks ago, maybe a month ago, a video hit the internet of Nakai gluing

• 1:09:32Matt Farah?

  Oh, right, right, right, right.

• 1:09:33Speaker 01

  On the front of a car, right? And it went viral, and everyone started making videos about...

• 1:09:39Matt Farah?

  Like, not screwing it into the tow hook spot?

• 1:09:42Speaker 01

  Like epoxy on tape holding it in place, video of Nakai putting this, this tow hook on. And, um...

• 1:09:50Speaker 01

  That obviously goes viral and there's always been like this hater group of people who just hate Rawwell for whatever reason. And, and all of a sudden like you start getting a lot of people, a lot of kind of talking heads, the classic like internet pundits being like, "I would never let him hack my car. He's a complete hack and uses sawzall and blah, blah, blah."

• 1:10:08Matt Farah?

  Like you don't even start by paying him 50 grand.

• 1:10:11Speaker 01

  Or, or getting on a three-year waiting list.

• 1:10:14Matt Farah?

  Let him.

• 1:10:15Speaker 01

  But, you know, the whole thing kind of like blew out from there and, and I actually reached out to my friends at RWV USA and I was like, "Hey man, what's the deal with this?" Cause like, like it's a bridge too far to try to defend a gl- like a glue-on, um, you know, tow hook. I defend everything else because from my perspective, when, when we first discovered RWV at Zero Sixty Magazine back in like 2008 and no one was talking about in the US, we were the first magazine to do a story on it, um, Bernou, you know Bernou? And Tony Harmer went over to Japan to cover that and, uh, you know, that was this era that like, first of all, 911s weren't worth anything.

• 1:10:52Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:52Speaker 01

  So that's the first part, right?

• 1:10:53Matt Farah?

  Yeah, 964s were like-

• 1:10:55Speaker 01

  Sub 10 grand for a C4.

• 1:10:57Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:57Speaker 01

  No one on a C4, 9 grand you get us, get that for. And I, you know, and I bought my turbo, um, famously for 35,000 and, which was-

• 1:11:05Matt Farah?

  Market price at that point.

• 1:11:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, and like no one was like, I mean, like the joke always was you should have bought an Evo instead because it wasn't as fast as an Evo when I bought it. But, um, but when, uh, you know, when Rawwell was first there, like they were building cars the way that race cars were built in the 90s. Like drywall screws, like caulking. I mean, like, I know that like we all now look at Singer and, you know, and all these other brands, Gunther Works and everyone who's, every single person who's building a custom 911 and they are craftsmen, building works of, of, of amazing machinery. Nakai is more like to me, a fashion designer who built something that you can't explain, but people love.

• 1:11:47Matt Farah?

  Sure.

• 1:11:48Speaker 01

  Right? It's like, I'm not saying, like, I think the kits look really nice. I think aesthetically they work, but like, yeah, does he cut everything off with a sawzall? And like, does he even tape the lines? Like, no, it's a little rough around the edges.

• 1:11:58Matt Farah?

  Yeah. In the name.

• 1:12:00Speaker 01

  Exactly. And that was kind of the point. So Vinny and I went and filmed the whole video, just kind of talking. I think it comes out this week.

• 1:12:07Matt Farah?

  Wait, did he glue the tow hook on or no?

• 1:12:09Speaker 01

  Okay, so I'll get to that.

• 1:12:10Matt Farah?

  Okay, sorry, sorry.

• 1:12:11Speaker 01

  This is where everyone was like, oh, because that was definitely the one where like it goes, apparently the backstory from what I heard from the people from RWB USA was that there was an owner who had the car on airbags and because of the airbags, they were unable to mount the tow hook to where he normally mounts a tow hook. Maybe the tank was in the way. I'm not sure of the full detail, but they wanted to take the photos. With the tow hook. So Nakai just cut the tow hook and glued it on and the owner of the car thought it was funny and videoed it. And like, it has been like, I mean, the past month or so, like every time I post my RWB, like I'll get comments now. People are like, oh, it's a hack job, blah, blah, blah.

• 1:12:50Matt Farah?

  The internet's about to be forever on that one.

• 1:12:53Speaker 01

  And the thing that kills me about it is that the internet made RWB something it wasn't. RWB were these rough race cars. They were taking old 911s and tracking them with the idlers in Japan. The cars came over here and the initial cars were like, you know, kind of in the same mindset, right? Like mine, Mark's, a bunch of other ones. And then they kind of became really like status symbol show cars as the price of the cars went up. And it's like, but if you think about it, like Nakai hasn't changed what he's done.

• 1:13:24Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:24Speaker 01

  Like he has made the Nevermind album every single year. This is like, he's made Appetite for Destruction every year. He keeps doing the same thing. So when people started saying this, the thing I was like, why, like it's 15 years later. Why are we still complaining about the same thing? Like there were people who hated it when my car came out and there are people who hate it today.

• 1:13:43Matt Farah?

  I think there are people who.

• 1:13:45Speaker 01

  Just want to hate things?

• 1:13:47Matt Farah?

  Well, they want evidence that the thing that they thought was true is true.

• 1:13:54Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:13:54Matt Farah?

  And so if they already thought, here's this guy cutting up Porsches, putting these quote ugly body kits, not my, you know, whatever.

• 1:14:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:14:03Matt Farah?

  You know. Ruining the sacredness of the Porsche, blah, blah, blah. And now here's a video of the guy literally taping or gluing something on.

• 1:14:12Speaker 01

  It's everything they wanted.

• 1:14:13Matt Farah?

  It's everything they want.

• 1:14:14Speaker 01

  I know. Yeah, and it's unfortunate because like, I mean, I really, I like Nakai and I understand like what he is. And I also understand what my car is because people were like, should have brought it. Like someone actually commented to me on something I, and I don't know why I fight with people on the internet. I really have to stop that, but I went and kind of said something to what someone else was saying. And someone else came back and was like, maybe you should have bought a Singer, Scotto. And I'm like, yeah, you don't understand where I live financially. And where someone who can afford a Singer lives. It's a very different world.

• 1:14:45Matt Farah?

  But it actually.

• 1:14:46Speaker 01

  I also got my car when it was way cheap.

• 1:14:47Matt Farah?

  But that's actually kind of a revealing comment that someone looks at you and looks at your car.

• 1:14:55Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:14:56Matt Farah?

  And their go to is should have bought a Singer. I mean, it, it's, it, it is, the implication is that one would be cross shopping those two things as, as equals.

• 1:15:08Speaker 01

  Well, and I think where you can actually compare it to the two is like, and back to fashion is like, you could go somewhere and wear something from, you know, Louis Vuitton that costs $5,000. Or you could get a thrifted T-shirt that someone could say is worth $5,000.

• 1:15:23Matt Farah?

  Sure.

• 1:15:23Speaker 01

  And like, they're both, someone would pay them for it. But like, one is like a luxury designer thing with the perfect stitch. And the other one is an old band shirt that was originally $16 and screen printed in Mexico.

• 1:15:34Matt Farah?

  But it has 40 years of wear and tear.

• 1:15:36Speaker 01

  Right, and now is like the thing and someone's willing to pay for it.

• 1:15:39Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:39Speaker 01

  And I think that that's the difference. It's like, and by the way, on all that, I do want to say, like, my car's 13 years old. I've had no issues with it. None of the caulking is cracked, the body kit hasn't cracked, like, it's still great, right? Like, there's like, it's amazing how well it's held up versus like other cars that I've built, where in three years, the body kit's falling apart. It warps in the sun, like all that kind of stuff. Like, so like, quality is there. I just think like his aesthetic of putting it on, which by the way, is the reason people sit around and watch him.

• 1:16:05Matt Farah?

  Bro, they sell tickets.

• 1:16:07Speaker 01

  It's crazy.

• 1:16:07Matt Farah?

  He's the only body shop, body person on the planet that can literally.

• 1:16:14Matt Farah?

  Sell admission tickets. That's fucking crazy. Forget the cars. That's crazy.

• 1:16:20Speaker 01

  And I, but I think that this is that part that like people want to hate it because it's almost like, I think people look at it and go, oh, he got there the easy way because it's just, it's, it's, you know, it's easily done versus like the, the amount of work company like saying, or you know, we both know Matt from AI. Like, when you look at a car AI built, you're like, I know that they did everything on this car. They zinked every bolt. They, they did everything. They care so much. And I think when you're, when you either support a company like that, or you are that company, you, it frustrates you so much to watch someone cut something with a saw and then be more famous than you. Right? Like, I think that that's a difficult thing.

• 1:16:59Matt Farah?

  Well, call it a personality. I mean, there's a guy who looks like fucking the Japanese Doc Brown, wily ass hair. He's got a sawzall, a carton of fucking Marlboro Reds. And the dude's just going at it, chain smoking. And people are fucking videoing it.

• 1:17:19Speaker 01

  I had this, I had this random, I had this random thought. It's not a theory, it's a thought. But imagine like a year from now, because apparently he's almost done with his list.

• 1:17:27Matt Farah?

  With his list?

• 1:17:28Speaker 01

  He has like a list because it's like, it's so backordered.

• 1:17:30Matt Farah?

  Oh, I thought you were gonna say like, he finishes the last car and then like commits seppuku on the hood.

• 1:17:35Speaker 01

  But imagine instead, imagine, no, imagine instead, imagine instead, we find out that all these years he spoke English, he's from Flushing, Queens. He's not even from Japan.

• 1:17:46Matt Farah?

  He's Banksy.

• 1:17:47Speaker 01

  And he just, and he just, he just pulled it on everyone. This has just been a troll for the past 15 years.

• 1:17:55Matt Farah?

  He's Kaiser Soze.

• 1:17:56Speaker 01

  He used to work at Willett's Point, next to Shea Stadium, and he was doing body kits there, and then he came up with a thing and,

• 1:18:02Matt Farah?

  Came up with a backstory.

• 1:18:04Speaker 01

  Came up with a backstory.

• 1:18:05Matt Farah?

  Real, it's the long con.

• 1:18:06Speaker 01

  But that being said, I absolutely.

• 1:18:08Matt Farah?

  He's got like a fucking Goomba accent.

• 1:18:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. He's just a kid from Flushing. Fucking lives off the seven lines. That is the story. Like, if that ends that way, I would be, and like, I just watched the value of my car do this. I couldn't be happier. I wish my car was worth 30 grand again.

• 1:18:24Matt Farah?

  It'd be so great.

• 1:18:25Speaker 01

  I'd be street parked outside right now.

• 1:18:26Matt Farah?

  If it was just all.

• 1:18:28Speaker 01

  It was all the time. It's like the end of like Usual Suspects.

• 1:18:32Matt Farah?

  That's like the prestige.

• 1:18:34Speaker 01

  Exactly. That's how I want the story to end.

• 1:18:40Matt Farah?

  Or what, I mean, what if he can only do these builds in 24 hours because he had a fucking twin? Then would he go out for a cigarette, the twin would pop it? He'd tag this motherfucker.

• 1:18:49Speaker 01

  It needs something like that. It needs something like that.

• 1:18:51Matt Farah?

  Yeah, a fictional retelling of the Nakai story.

• 1:18:56Speaker 01

  I haven't had a chance. I mean, it's funny because the internet thinks like, oh, you must talk to Nakai all the time. I'm like, I haven't spoken to Nakai in years.

• 1:19:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:19:03Speaker 01

  And I see Toshi, who's his business partner, more often, but I kind of want to like eventually at some point, sit down and say to Nakai like, do you like what this has become? Like, are you happy where this is at? Like, where is your head at in that? Because I don't think anyone ever asks them.

• 1:19:18Matt Farah?

  That's funny.

• 1:19:19Speaker 01

  Or he just won't answer it. Or how, yeah, like, or how he answers it. And like, I'm sure he's probably pretty bummed right now that there's like all these videos calling him a hack. Or he's got the bag and he don't care.

• 1:19:29Matt Farah?

  I'd like to think that he doesn't know of their existence. That's what I want for him.

• 1:19:34Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:19:35Matt Farah?

  Is to like, there's people that look at the internet. I just chain smoke and cut fenders. Let's fucking go.

• 1:19:43Speaker 01

  So here's a good question. This is a good little segue. Do you guys read your own comments on your content? Like, do you pay attention to the, any negativity from what you get? Or do you, or do you separate from that?

• 1:19:55Speaker 02

  I look at it like the first day, but I only focus on if the negativity is constructive in some way.

• 1:20:01Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:20:02Speaker 02

  If it's just like, I fucking hate you or whatever.

• 1:20:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:20:06Speaker 02

  I think, I think I was lucky enough to watch you go through the big negatives in the early years. And now that I'm older, like, it's just a little slide.

• 1:20:13Matt Farah?

  Oh, I got called fat like a thousand times a day. It was like horrible for my self-esteem and everything. And yeah, led into like deep, deep depression and stuff.

• 1:20:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, the internet's really dark.

• 1:20:24Speaker 02

  Well, you would also, and you would respond, you'd respond to every comment because you were trying to answer questions.

• 1:20:28Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:28Speaker 02

  But even if those questions were negative, not like the fat stuff, but if it was just a negative comment about the video, you would spend so much time responding.

• 1:20:35Matt Farah?

  I didn't have the right strategy.

• 1:20:36Speaker 02

  It's whack, it's whack a mole that won't end. So I think I learned from that and I just try not to do that.

• 1:20:40Matt Farah?

  Now I'll, I'll take a look at Instagram comments, but I won't look at YouTube comments at all.

• 1:20:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's definitely a different swamp there.

• 1:20:46Matt Farah?

  It's it's equally bad.

• 1:20:48Speaker 01

  It's tough for me because I I prided so much on the early days of Hoonigan of like the the joke like my title was Chief Creative Officer, CCO. But Vinny used to call me Chief Comment Officer because like I was the one who was in there commenting. Like people would think like there was a community manager was like, no, I was there because I wanted to see what was working, what was resonating with the audience, but wasn't resonating like real customer service kind of aspect to it. Right. Ken recommended me this book when I first started Hoonigan called Raving Fans. It's like 70 page book, but it basically was a book written in a time of of the expansion of brands like Walmart. And like, how do you compete with Walmart as a mom and pop shop, right? And the way you do it is just better customer service, right?

• 1:21:27Speaker 01

  Like people will pay more money to work with you if you get that customer service. And one of the stories in the book very quickly was there was like a big, you know, bookstore in the mall that this company was in, and they were a small bookstore. And someone came in and asked them for a book. They didn't have it. They looked online very quickly and they saw that the store down the block had it. And they had two choices. They could either send that person to the store or just say, sorry, we don't have it. But instead they sent another store clerk to the store to buy the book and then sell to them for a loss.

• 1:21:58Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:58Speaker 01

  Right. Sell it to them and lose money because they wanted to.

• 1:22:01Matt Farah?

  They bought a customer.

• 1:22:02Speaker 01

  They bought a customer, right? And I we treated our our audience that way in the early days. It got a lot harder as the company got bigger and our audiences got bigger. And that's actually back to like my conversation before of like, you know, I I do you know who Foster Huntington is by any chance? Foster Hunting. He has an Instagram or so he's actually famous for hashtag van life. So his backstory actually might have been, he was either working for Ralph Lauren or Calvin Klein, one of the two. I know you've got to see your family connection on on your.

• 1:22:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah, years ago, but yeah.

• 1:22:34Speaker 01

  But he was working for one of them was in New York City as a yeah, Foster Hunting. Was in New York City as a as like a designer. And like woke up one day and was like, I hate this, like, I don't want to live in a city. I don't want to do my job, sold like all his worldly belongings, bought a Volkswagen Vanagon and started traveling. And this is like 2011 or something.

• 1:22:57Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 1:22:57Speaker 01

  So it's like before like the overland and like expedition thing really kind of explodes and. He starts calling it hashtag and it was right as Instagram launched.

• 1:23:06Matt Farah?

  So he's on the So he literally invented Van Life?

• 1:23:09Speaker 01

  So he kind of started the hashtag Van Life and then the New York Times wrote a story on him.

• 1:23:14Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 1:23:14Speaker 01

  About Van Life and he kind of exploded from there. Anyway, long story short, we were Instagram friends. I'd never met him. Um, I had this similar, I had this similar moment that I was going through, actually right before Ken died, where I wanted to just like, I just needed to bug out for a few weeks. I was like super stressed. Like I was unhappy with how things were at Hoonigan. I wasn't really enjoying my job there anymore. And I was thinking about leaving. So I was like, I need to just go clear my head, just kind of get away from everything. So I bought this Audi 4000 in Canada, as you do. Um, I actually bought it during the pandemic. I might've talked about this on the last, I don't want to repeat myself, but I bought it and the car sat for two years.

• 1:23:51Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I think you mentioned.

• 1:23:52Speaker 01

  And then I bought it and I drove it down. Anyway, I ended up stopping at this guy's place. He has these really cool tree houses on his property. He built these like sick tree houses on his property. So I went and he's like, yeah, come by, come stay in the tree house, you know, so on and so on. And, uh, so I came there and

• 1:24:06Matt Farah?

  Is that the tree house?

• 1:24:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's the tree house.

• 1:24:08Matt Farah?

  Wow, that's sick.

• 1:24:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's super rad.

• 1:24:10Matt Farah?

  I love a tree house.

• 1:24:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's really, really cool. So, um, hey, look, there's, there's me, Ryan Scott, commenting there. But went there, stayed at his tree house and like, I had never met this kid before. Like we talked on Instagram and that was it. And he's like, he's 10 years younger than me. And I'd never had a conversation with someone who was so much younger than me, but I felt like I was having a conversation with a mentor, like it was one of those things. And what I realized was, was we were very similar in the way that like we looked at life and creative, but we did it differently. Right? Like he was working for this big company and left and went and did it on his own. Right? And I went and started this thing and tried to grow it really big and, and then kind of got sucked into this, that side of it, right?

• 1:24:52Speaker 01

  Like that all of a sudden, the reason I first got there wasn't the reason I was still there. My mom has this famous quote that she said to me, I don't know if it's hers or she stole it from someone else, but don't fact check her because it'll crush me. But, um, that Be careful how high you climb the ladder, because you'll forget why you got on the first rung to begin with. Because like, remember, like, in my magazine days, I was an editor in chief at 25. Like, I was pretty young to be doing what I was doing, and I was a little, as a kid who was a college dropout, I was pretty proud of what I had accomplished. So I was kind of really enjoying the, like, I'm the editor in chief of not one, not two, but three magazines. And, you know, by the time I was 26, and I had all these, like, I'm gonna own a 9/11 before I'm 30, and like,

• 1:25:35Speaker 01

  you know, I created all these things of, like, this, this road to success of all the things I wanted. And my mom just was like, be careful, because you're gonna get to a point where you get so high up that, like, you forgot why you got on to begin with. And that definitely happened.

• 1:25:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah, when you're talking about the 401Ks and all that shit, and, and the...

• 1:25:53Speaker 01

  No, and you're just a business manager. And you're not, and then you're like, I didn't even wanna do this. Like, I'm a mediocre manager at best, you know? And now I'm a piss poor creative, because I'm spending all my time worrying about management. So anyway, I went and I had this conversation with him, and I was like, I, I, I, at that point in my life, I hadn't seek therapy yet, so I just needed someone to fucking talk to. And this dude was like, oh, you can come stay at my house, we can listen to music. I'm like, oh, all right, you wanna talk about life? I'll talk about life. And he said this one thing to me, and, you know, I don't think it's uniquely him, but it stuck with me. And he said, you can either mean a lot to a little, or a little to a lot.

• 1:26:24Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:24Speaker 01

  Right? And that, I think, I think, you know, and at that point, Hoonigan was already a little to a lot. Right? There was, there was a lot of Hoonigan that was a lot to a little of Hoonigan. But for the average guy who's driving to Tacoma right now, that has a Hoonigan sticker on the back, that doesn't even know I left a year ago.

• 1:26:42Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:26:42Speaker 01

  That's the little.

• 1:26:43Matt Farah?

  Sure.

• 1:26:43Speaker 01

  Right? And I, but I enjoyed when we were a lot to a little. I really, that was my favorite era, where, like, I knew a lot of the fans' names, like, I connected on that side. And that's where I think, like, the Patreon stuff and all that's a lot more interesting to me.

• 1:26:58Matt Farah?

  Patreon is better for that. When we have, when we have folks that ask us questions for the pod from the Patreon, you know, there's new ones every time, and people come up with fun, you know, usernames or whatever.

• 1:27:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:27:09Matt Farah?

  But there's also the same, like, 30 or 40 people.

• 1:27:12Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:27:13Matt Farah?

  That come up with a pretty good question for almost every show.

• 1:27:16Speaker 01

  And, and his business model was like, super serve those people. Right, and then whatever else happens, it's fine, but build a business off of those people.

• 1:27:26Matt Farah?

  That's what this business is, at Westside. You know, in the whole company's history, four years' history, we've had about 300 customers.

• 1:27:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:27:35Matt Farah?

  That's it.

• 1:27:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:27:37Matt Farah?

  I mean, that's not a lot.

• 1:27:38Speaker 01

  You can remember all their names.

• 1:27:39Matt Farah?

  But, yeah.

• 1:27:40Speaker 01

  If you didn't have a

• 1:27:40Matt Farah?

  You remember their, yeah, and you know, and I know their cars, and I know what they want, and whatever.

• 1:27:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:27:45Matt Farah?

  And so, it's, and to those people, we're fucking clutch.

• 1:27:48Speaker 01

  But we think how insane the content thing is of like, I used to work for a magazine that was one of the tops, this is crazy by the way, Rides Magazine was one of the top-selling magazines in America in the automotive space. We outsold Car and Driver and all of it.

• 1:28:02Matt Farah?

  Really?

• 1:28:02Speaker 01

  Because we were so heavily newsstand.

• 1:28:05Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:28:05Speaker 01

  So, newsstand, Car and Driver crushed us because every dentist in the world had a subscription.

• 1:28:10Speaker 02

  Subscription they crushed you.

• 1:28:11Matt Farah?

  You mean, subscription they crushed you?

• 1:28:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm sorry, subscription.

• 1:28:13Matt Farah?

  Subscription they did, but

• 1:28:14Speaker 01

  Subscription they crushed us, but on newsstand, we were one of the top-selling magazines.

• 1:28:17Matt Farah?

  Cause you had strong covers.

• 1:28:19Speaker 01

  Cause we had young kids who weren't buying subscriptions, and we're just buying every issue that came out, which also made the magazine really profitable.

• 1:28:24Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:25Speaker 01

  Right, and this again is part of the, we talked about before, the European model. Like, more people were buying at the newsstand than getting subscriptions, because the subscriptions aren't cheaper in Europe. Like, a subscription to Evo is like a hundred and twenty dollars, you know, so you just buy at the newsstand.

• 1:28:39Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:39Speaker 01

  So

• 1:28:40Matt Farah?

  My Road Rat subscription's like fifty pounds a year, and it's four issues.

• 1:28:44Speaker 01

  It's a nice book.

• 1:28:45Matt Farah?

  It is very

• 1:28:45Speaker 01

  It's a very nice book, yeah.

• 1:28:46Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's, that's magazine as a luxury item, which I am

• 1:28:50Speaker 01

  All about, I'm all about. And that's one of the things I'm gonna do next, is that type of stuff, but, but I, um, you know

• 1:28:57Matt Farah?

  Are you hiring?

• 1:28:58Speaker 01

  What?

• 1:28:58Matt Farah?

  Nothing.

• 1:28:59Speaker 01

  We'll talk, we'll talk.

• 1:28:59Matt Farah?

  I didn't say that, I didn't say that. I said, are you hiring?

• 1:29:05Speaker 01

  Let's get to that, because we haven't even talked about what I'm doing next, we'll get to that, but, I mean, what was our time count now?

• 1:29:10Speaker 02

  We're at one twenty-four.

• 1:29:11Speaker 01

  Oh, we're fucking Have we started the show yet?

• 1:29:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:15Speaker 01

  Have we hit record yet? We're gonna hit record now. But no, back to that, the concept of like

• 1:29:20Matt Farah?

  Let's make sure to keep it going.

• 1:29:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, you got a little Red Bull there.

• 1:29:23Matt Farah?

  Sugar-free Red Beasy, so.

• 1:29:26Speaker 01

  But you know, I think that looking at that model, it really kind of shifted the way like, I want to make stuff. Like, I want to make stuff for people who really, really, really care about that one thing. There's this famous episode that I get made fun of for, that happened on, who knew it was called the Rusty Bolt episode. That's not the actual name of the episode, but I spend the entire, I spend the entire episode fixing the Rusty Bolt, right?

• 1:29:49Matt Farah?

  This is the Chinese restaurant episode of Seinfeld.

• 1:29:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:29:52Matt Farah?

  The whole video where you don't get a bolt.

• 1:29:53Speaker 01

  And it's like, there's an entire group of people who are like, I fucking hate that like, he didn't get more done. And then there's the other audience that's like, I hate that I watched the whole episode.

• 1:30:03Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:30:04Speaker 01

  And I think that that for me is enjoyable. Like, can I, can you make an episode about a Rusty Bolt? And make it a whole episode versus like, okay, in this episode, we swap in a Hellcat engine into a Rolls Royce. And like, we're like, well, of course that's gonna do well, right? But can you do storytelling in a way that people like the other story?

• 1:30:23Matt Farah?

  That's, but like, man, just think about the fucking margins on an episode about a bolt versus an episode about an entire car build.

• 1:30:31Speaker 01

  Uh, yeah.

• 1:30:31Matt Farah?

  The margins are so good.

• 1:30:33Speaker 01

  I was just, I was just on, um, do you know the grind, uh, the grind hard plumbing guys? Man, we live in a different world of automotive. Um, so Grind Hard is a group, uh, they got famous for the Barbie cart. So they built like-

• 1:30:47Matt Farah?

  Oh, they made a full-size Barbie car, right?

• 1:30:48Speaker 01

  They made like a Barbie like quad.

• 1:30:50Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, okay, that I remember. Yeah, that I remember.

• 1:30:52Speaker 01

  And then the thing that they had at SEMA was the monster bike, which is like, uh, which basically like, yeah, that thing on top was what they built. And it went like mega viral.

• 1:31:01Matt Farah?

  Sure, okay, yeah.

• 1:31:02Speaker 01

  It went so viral that they weren't the ones who got it viral. Like, it was like Lad Bible and everyone else is ripping their videos, went viral, right? But they kind of work in this area of like, they like building just dumb stuff. Like, most of it's cart-based.

• 1:31:15Matt Farah?

  I think I've seen some other, I think I may have seen some silly shit that they've built before, sure.

• 1:31:19Speaker 01

  They, they build weird stuff.

• 1:31:21Matt Farah?

  Their videos are long as fuck.

• 1:31:22Speaker 01

  Yeah. Um, anyway, I went on their, their podcast last week and one of the things that, um, I spoke to them about was that, um, was that I think we got to this world in, uh, and I don't want to say the same thing if you're listening to the podcast, I apologize. But this is going for four hours, so we're good. But, um, uh- And by the way, I'm also launching my own podcast. I'm gonna give you guys all my material before I even get there, you know? So, um, plug my own thing, so. But, um, but so then from there, uh, we were talking about this idea of like, have you ever gone to the, to like a stadium to watch sports and everyone's standing? And you're kinda like, if we all sat down, we all could see the game.

• 1:32:01Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:32:02Speaker 01

  But now we all have to stand.

• 1:32:04Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:04Speaker 01

  I think that's what happened to automotive content in YouTube, which is like, we all started putting Viper engines in Miata's.

• 1:32:10Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:11Speaker 01

  And now you can't just do a cool, simple build anymore because it's just not gonna work because everyone's, we one-upped each other to the point of like, we're putting rockets in cars.

• 1:32:20Speaker 02

  It's video hyperbole.

• 1:32:21Matt Farah?

  Freddie has now pigeonholed himself into having to make a P1, a hurricane flooded P1 work.

• 1:32:28Speaker 01

  It's like, how much more insane is it gonna be, you know? And I think that this is where-

• 1:32:31Matt Farah?

  We've hit the edge.

• 1:32:32Speaker 01

  We've hit the edge and I don't know if the viewers are actually happy with that or if the algorithm's just servicing it, but, but the, but, and that's part of the algorithm problem is that if you were just to build a really nice E46 and there's an audience that really wants to see that, like, it's not gonna, it's not gonna bubble up. You're not gonna get to see it, right? Yeah.

• 1:32:52Speaker 02

  No, you're right.

• 1:32:53Speaker 01

  But you know what I'm saying? Like, it's just, that's not gonna be the type of content that does well. Do you watch any of Vinny's content?

• 1:32:58Matt Farah?

  I watch a lot of his, like, Instagram reels and stuff. I, I don't watch a lot of his YouTube content, but, um, it seems like he's doing well.

• 1:33:08Speaker 01

  Do you watch his YouTube content?

• 1:33:09Speaker 02

  Eh, infrequently, like one out of five.

• 1:33:11Speaker 01

  I'm, I, I, I don't want me to put him on blast, but like, he, I'm so proud of what he's done and also somewhat surprised because Vinny was the guy at Hoonigan who was like, "I want to do something other than be on camera because I don't see being on camera being my future after Hoonigan." And then after Hoonigan, he's, he's the guy who's like crushing it, right? Like, I think he's the one that's like really figured out a space for himself and he started doing these like comparison videos and I think he's done this really good job of taking like the old comparison video of Yore, which was the Mototrend kinda model, right? Or the, the Hagerty model and mix it with like a-

• 1:33:49Speaker 01

  More intimate vlog type of casualness and personality that like I think always misses on those on everyone else's videos. And like, I don't want to call anyone else out, they're all really good friends, but they're still making TV shows for the internet.

• 1:34:03Matt Farah?

  True.

• 1:34:04Speaker 01

  And I think like he's figured out the show that when I watch it, I'm getting this like comparison, like he did this one where

• 1:34:12Speaker 01

  he compared three levels of nine eleven. So he compared um Bernou's C2.

• 1:34:19Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:19Speaker 01

  And then someone else's, I think modded whatever nine nine seven and then his GT3. And basically it was like, which one is like of these, I think, I think he called it worth it or something like that.

• 1:34:30Matt Farah?

  Down there, base, that's Corvette, uh.

• 1:34:35Speaker 01

  Worth it, well, he has the Ferrari worth it.

• 1:34:37Matt Farah?

  Where's the sweet spot, that one?

• 1:34:39Speaker 01

  That was a different one, that was the built on one, I don't know, he's making stuff every week, the dude's crushing on that. But like, you know, I think that this is one of those things where like, there's a sweets out there, but I've had conversations with him because he was doing, I'm probably airing too much personal business, but like I was talking about like, this stuff is really, really good. Like, I think like as someone who was in charge of content for, for Hunnigan, I look at this and I'm like, I know that this gets better. Like, I know that this audience, like, it may not feel like it's there now, but in two years from now, like, this is the thing that can keep growing. Like, you've got the right energy for it and it, it feels like it can keep growing. I was like, the problem with him doing car builds is his bro is boring as fuck. He builds the most simple nuanced cars that you and I love.

• 1:35:22Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:35:23Speaker 01

  But like, it's a GT3.

• 1:35:26Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:26Speaker 01

  Like, I'm happy that you modded it tastefully in the way I would do it, but like.

• 1:35:29Speaker 02

  But it's competing against the custom Barbie mobile.

• 1:35:31Speaker 01

  Against the guy who's like, I took a GT3 and I got a motor out of a P51 Mustang and put it in the front. And you're like, well, I want to watch that abortion. So, so you don't watch that. And I think that that's, it's difficult for creators where like, people like Vinnie, they watch Vinnie because they like Vinnie's personality.

• 1:35:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:50Speaker 01

  But I think it's hard in that world of like, yeah, is this build important enough? Is this whatever? And I got into a whole conversation.

• 1:35:56Matt Farah?

  You know what he's doing a good job of, I think, is, and I, I haven't, in, you know, Vinnie, I love you.

• 1:36:01Speaker 01

  Don't apologize, I don't watch anyone else's content.

• 1:36:03Matt Farah?

  I don't watch anyone's shit.

• 1:36:04Speaker 01

  I subscribe to your Patreon, by the way, and I subscribe to a bunch of people's Patreon because I felt like I couldn't tell people you need to support automotive content and not do it myself.

• 1:36:12Matt Farah?

  Thank you, I appreciate it. We'll subscribe to yours.

• 1:36:14Speaker 01

  I wasn't asking for a pity sub, I wasn't asking for a pity sub.

• 1:36:18Matt Farah?

  Entry level plan.

• 1:36:20Speaker 01

  I only have one plan, I don't offer much.

• 1:36:21Matt Farah?

  Oh, really?

• 1:36:22Speaker 01

  I need to build six bucks.

• 1:36:24Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 1:36:24Speaker 01

  It was the, it's the initial one, I'll eventually shut it down once it's up and running, but like right now.

• 1:36:29Matt Farah?

  IPO.

• 1:36:30Speaker 01

  I'm launching two podcasts, which is probably a dumb thing to do, and you guys will probably tell me so. Um, but I'm launching one podcast, which is like a banter style podcast, like what you guys do here. And then I'm watching, I'm launching like a very formulated concept, two different shows. So the one show, which I'm calling Very Vehicular, is.

• 1:36:45Matt Farah?

  Not bad.

• 1:36:46Speaker 01

  Is it, yeah.

• 1:36:46Matt Farah?

  Pretty good.

• 1:36:47Speaker 01

  It's kind of whatever. Only problem is it's a V, so I'm gonna be all the way down the line.

• 1:36:50Matt Farah?

  Oh, alphabetical.

• 1:36:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, or do you call it a very?

• 1:36:54Matt Farah?

  A very vehicular podcast.

• 1:36:55Speaker 01

  Yeah, to bump it up.

• 1:36:56Matt Farah?

  You call it ah, ah, ah, ah, you know.

• 1:36:58Speaker 01

  But what I've been doing is I've been recording, uh, practice episodes.

• 1:37:02Matt Farah?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:37:03Speaker 01

  And just putting all that on Patreon.

• 1:37:04Matt Farah?

  Sure.

• 1:37:04Speaker 01

  Right, like the first one, I literally, I had never, you guys have much nicer equipment, but I have a Rodecaster.

• 1:37:09Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's what we use for. That's great. Portable.

• 1:37:11Speaker 01

  Portable stuff, yeah. So I basically have like a portable setup.

• 1:37:13Matt Farah?

  It's fine.

• 1:37:14Speaker 01

  I recorded in my friend's bakery the other day. I like put my, I didn't even have a stand for my iPhone. My iPhone's just sitting in the corner and you can like see the zipper of my bag.

• 1:37:22Matt Farah?

  Oh my god.

• 1:37:22Speaker 01

  And I, but I want it to be like that because I'm, I, I can be too much of a perfectionist. Where like I would, it would take me six months to release my first episode.

• 1:37:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:30Speaker 01

  But there's something about the world I created for this Patreon audience that like, I'm just gonna pump it out. You guys get to see it.

• 1:37:35Matt Farah?

  They're not gonna judge.

• 1:37:36Speaker 01

  You watch me as I grow it, and as I get to the point where I'm like, okay, cool, I feel like I'm ready to start actually doing episodes on YouTube and kind of go there.

• 1:37:44Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:37:45Speaker 01

  But, anyway, but the point I was, I don't know, I bounced around.

• 1:37:49Matt Farah?

  I was gonna say that what Vinny, what Vinny's doing that I think really works, at least what I've seen from his, um, Instagram content, which is just cut down versions of his YouTube content. Um, is that he seems to be like buying, selling, wrenching, comparing, um, a lot of cars, you know, from that period.

• 1:38:10Speaker 01

  Right.

• 1:38:11Matt Farah?

  Where people our age could, could buy one.

• 1:38:14Speaker 01

  Well, you know their company is called Drivers' Era.

• 1:38:16Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:38:17Speaker 01

  So him and Ron started a company called Drivers' Era. I'm not involved, everyone thinks I am, but I just like my buddies and I support them, so I wear their stuff. But they started a company called Drivers' Era and that term came from a conversation that we were all in, which was like, this is the last of the Drivers' Era cars, right? Like 2008, 2010? When like the Mitsubishi Evo all of a sudden came with a DSG style transmission, was the shift out of it, right? Like the Evo 9 is probably still part of that. Ah, maybe the Evo 10 isn't, maybe it still is. But the idea that all the nannies, all of that stuff started coming in. And then by the time you get to, you know, 2010.

• 1:38:54Matt Farah?

  2010, it's all gone, yeah.

• 1:38:55Speaker 01

  It's all kind of gone and we didn't realize it was leaving. And that, so this like night, like late night, mid 90s to mid to late, early aughts.

• 1:39:03Matt Farah?

  08, 09, yeah.

• 1:39:04Speaker 01

  Is this like the last of the Drivers' Era?

• 1:39:06Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:07Speaker 01

  And that was like the whole concept of their car, because we, their company, because we started looking at all the cars that we started caring about, right? And we started talking about, you know, which is the classic thing, right? The car you wanted in high school is the car that's going to be worth money. So it's like you start looking at like STIs and they're like, oh, those are starting to go up. E46s, like those are starting to go up. And you start going, oh, all these cars are really starting to catch on in the way that the 80s and 90s cars did a few years ago. But that these are like, still new enough that they feel newish to drive.

• 1:39:36Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:36Speaker 01

  But, you know, there's a reason I drove my 95 RS2 here and not my swallowtail.

• 1:39:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:41Speaker 01

  Right? Because like it's still fine in traffic, it's still a regular car.

• 1:39:43Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I just did 150 miles in the NSX this weekend, it was great.

• 1:39:46Speaker 01

  It's great.

• 1:39:46Matt Farah?

  Absolutely.

• 1:39:47Speaker 01

  And that's a perfect era, like Drivers' Era.

• 1:39:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's a great car.

• 1:39:50Speaker 01

  And I think there's a whole audience right now that's looking for that type of content, right?

• 1:39:54Matt Farah?

  And they're for, you know, we've mainly filmed new cars and there are very few of them.

• 1:39:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's a great combo. I'll change that, because I just went to my first press event. You did, you went to the Scout? I saw you at the Scout launch. Yeah, I'm friends with Jamie over at Scout. Um, he was at Vortex back in the day. He used to have to ban me all the time from the Vortex forums. And I went to the Scout launch and that's about, right, that's about the right face. And it was very interesting to be at a press launch and had not been at one in a really long time and saw.

• 1:40:25Matt Farah?

  Pretty corporate, right?

• 1:40:26Speaker 01

  Well, this one was a little bit different because there was a ton of people, there was a ton of people there who were like more in the influencer space. Plus they invited out like a ton of Scout enthusiasts to be there, which was cool. But there was just guys who like, like I felt like, like I literally saw them. I'm like, oh, I haven't seen you since the R8 launch, which was the last launch. And like the first R8, and you're like, they're still doing the same thing. Like that's that, I saw, um, uh, Tamara Warren, who I love her, I haven't seen her in forever. And she had disappeared for a while and was kind of back. Saw Mark Vaughn, like, you know, just a bunch of like.

• 1:41:03Matt Farah?

  Career.

• 1:41:03Speaker 01

  Career auto journalists. And it was like funny because it's like I walked away from it, came back. It's a little different. The rooms aren't as nice as they were when we were younger.

• 1:41:11Matt Farah?

  They're spending.

• 1:41:12Speaker 01

  The chicken's a little colder than it used to be.

• 1:41:14Matt Farah?

  A little less money.

• 1:41:15Speaker 01

  Spending a little less money, but.

• 1:41:16Matt Farah?

  Except for a couple of brands, which are really over the top.

• 1:41:19Speaker 01

  Yes. Text me those because I like to go to those events.

• 1:41:21Matt Farah?

  You want to catch a ride when like a luxury brand is under new ownership? Like when Stroll bought Aston, then you want to go on the launch for the next car.

• 1:41:31Speaker 01

  That's the move, right?

• 1:41:32Matt Farah?

  They rented a fucking hotel on the cliff over Monaco for a month. And it was, they had 18 DB12s and I was, uh, and there was like seven or eight waves of like three days each. It was Michelin this and the wine pairings. It was fucking crazy. It was millions and millions and millions of dollars.

• 1:41:55Speaker 02

  And their total debt as of June 2024 is 1.7 billion dollars.

• 1:41:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's not that bad.

• 1:42:01Speaker 02

  It's not too bad.

• 1:42:01Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's not that bad.

• 1:42:02Speaker 02

  It's not bad.

• 1:42:02Matt Farah?

  But that's where you want to catch them.

• 1:42:04Speaker 01

  The, uh, do you remember when Audi used to have what they would refer to as the Audi bubble? Like if you went to an Audi event, they wanted to make sure that you never left Audi.

• 1:42:13Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah, yeah.

• 1:42:14Speaker 01

  Like you'd be staying at a hotel and you wouldn't get on an elevator with someone else from that hotel. Who wasn't part of the Audi trip.

• 1:42:21Matt Farah?

  And they'd program your TVs and also the home screen was Audi.

• 1:42:26Speaker 01

  Everything was super programmed. One of the, I'll tell this one quickly because I love the story. I, um, so it was actually a joke when we were talking about the R8 launch. It was the R8 launch. It wasn't, it was the launch, the V8 R8 launch. And, uh, so it's the first, it's the international launch. Being held at the sanctuary. Do you remember the sanctuary?

• 1:42:43Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:42:44Speaker 01

  Great.

• 1:42:44Matt Farah?

  I was there a week ago in Scottsdale.

• 1:42:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, in Scottsdale.

• 1:42:46Matt Farah?

  The road and track event, first night.

• 1:42:48Speaker 01

  Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic resort.

• 1:42:50Matt Farah?

  Boss.

• 1:42:50Speaker 01

  So, uh, I don't know, I like missed my connection. I fly in, I get in super late and I'm going to check in. And they're like, I'm sorry, sir, we don't have a room for you. I was like, ah, okay. I like, I don't even like, it's late, so I don't even know who to call.

• 1:43:04Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:43:05Speaker 01

  And, uh, this woman who was the head of PR, I think her name was Christine Wilder or whatever. She, she came out, she was head of PR in Germany.

• 1:43:12Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 1:43:13Speaker 01

  And she said, she's like, she starts like just yelling at these people like, what do you mean? You don't have a room for him? Like, you need to figure this out.

• 1:43:20Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:43:20Speaker 01

  Such as, such as, such. So I basically get put in the presidential suite.

• 1:43:23Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 1:43:23Speaker 01

  So I'm in my early twenties at this point, like mid twenties. And I have a lot of friends who lived in Scottsdale and Phoenix area. So I just start calling everybody up and like, guys, I got four rooms. One has a hot tub in it. Like, I have about a hundred Heinekens I've ordered to the room on Addie's tab. Like, come on over, let's go. And like, so we party, like have like a ton of fun. I go to the, drive the next morning, party again that night, like skip dinner, go. Actually, I made cocktails and the cocktails, I was hanging with Christine and I was beer drinking at the time. And all the other journalists at this era, like this was, this is an era to kind of put this in time. Like, I was the youngest person there.

• 1:44:01Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:01Speaker 01

  By a decade.

• 1:44:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:02Speaker 01

  Everyone else is like.

• 1:44:03Matt Farah?

  This was at the very beginning of YouTube.

• 1:44:05Speaker 01

  They weren't inviting the blog yet, right? I was getting him because I was still a print magazine.

• 1:44:10Matt Farah?

  Jopnik was not getting an invite.

• 1:44:11Speaker 01

  Johnny wasn't getting an invite. Davy wasn't getting an invite, but because I was a magazine, I would get the invite. And, um, so anyway, I'm there and, uh, Christine, you know, being German was like, oh, finally someone who drinks beer. So her and I drank a bunch of beers together. And then the next morning I'm checking out and I see her and I know I had made a good impression. So I said, hey. I realize that you probably don't have any spare R8s. But I'm in town for the week. Can I borrow an S4?

• 1:44:39Matt Farah?

  Or whatever.

• 1:44:40Speaker 01

  Or something else, right?

• 1:44:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:41Speaker 01

  And she said, oh, we'll, we'll, we'll get something sorted for you for sure. Um, where are you staying? I was like, oh, I'm gonna go to the Valley Ho in Towns. Why aren't you staying here?

• 1:44:49Matt Farah?

  Best hotel ever, by the way.

• 1:44:50Speaker 01

  Valley Ho is fantastic.

• 1:44:51Matt Farah?

  The Valley Ho is my favorite hotel.

• 1:44:53Speaker 01

  Valley Ho is.

• 1:44:54Matt Farah?

  In the state of Arizona.

• 1:44:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:44:55Matt Farah?

  Possibly in America.

• 1:44:56Speaker 01

  Mid-century modern, like, and they were mid-century modern before mid-century modern.

• 1:45:00Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:00Speaker 01

  It was cool again.

• 1:45:00Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:01Speaker 01

  I mean, they've been doing it for years.

• 1:45:02Matt Farah?

  Bull Run 2010, we went there and it was amazing.

• 1:45:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's a great, it's a great hotel. First, uh, my first press launch of all time was at the Valley Ho.

• 1:45:11Matt Farah?

  No way.

• 1:45:12Speaker 01

  For the Dodge Caliber SRT4 launch.

• 1:45:15Matt Farah?

  Oh my god.

• 1:45:16Speaker 01

  That was my first press launch, 2004.

• 1:45:18Matt Farah?

  That is the biggest mismatch of great hotel to shittiest, shittiest car ever.

• 1:45:24Speaker 01

  I, I, I don't, yeah, anyway, we'll, we'll get back to that.

• 1:45:26Matt Farah?

  So you're staying at the Valley Ho.

• 1:45:28Speaker 01

  So I'm like, I'm staying at the Valley Ho, and she's like, that's ridiculous, we'll just extend your room. And they don't downgrade me to the normal room while the other drivers are. They keep me in the five-bedroom suite that I'm staying in. It has its own, like, private indoor pool kind of thing.

• 1:45:42Matt Farah?

  What?

• 1:45:43Speaker 01

  And I just.

• 1:45:43Matt Farah?

  Was it one of, like, the houses?

• 1:45:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was a house.

• 1:45:45Matt Farah?

  It was the house?

• 1:45:46Speaker 01

  Like, down, like, staying in my own, like, villa.

• 1:45:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:50Speaker 01

  And we partied every night.

• 1:45:52Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:53Speaker 01

  And I thought by the end.

• 1:45:54Matt Farah?

  Only Scottsdale trash can do.

• 1:45:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, like, we.

• 1:45:59Speaker 01

  What's the, like, what's the statute of limitation? We stole a taxicab.

• 1:46:05Speaker 01

  When I say we, I wasn't the one driving, but I may have been in the backseat. And the people behind us had to pick up the taxicab driver and bring him to the, to the house.

• 1:46:15Matt Farah?

  No way.

• 1:46:16Speaker 01

  Cause we were out at the bars, and this girl was like, we need to go here. And the guy was like, I don't know where that is. And she was like, get out. And he, like, got out of a car and she got in, and I'm in the backseat, and she just takes off with the guy outside the car.

• 1:46:27Matt Farah?

  Holy shit.

• 1:46:28Speaker 01

  And then, like, my other friends had to bring him, so he came back to the, to the, he came back to the sanctuary with us.

• 1:46:34Matt Farah?

  I brought the Buster back.

• 1:46:35Speaker 01

  And Buster came. Yeah. But we brought him with us, and then he partied with us at the sanctuary.

• 1:46:40Matt Farah?

  He wasn't even mad, he stole his car.

• 1:46:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, stole his car, it was great.

• 1:46:43Matt Farah?

  I've never been in the president's suite before. What do you got in there?

• 1:46:46Speaker 01

  And then at the end, I'm like, like they're like, I'm going to check out and I'm just like, they're gonna hit me with the room. Not the room charge.

• 1:46:53Matt Farah?

  The booze charge or whatever.

• 1:46:54Speaker 01

  But they're gonna hit me with the booze charge.

• 1:46:55Matt Farah?

  Nada?

• 1:46:56Speaker 01

  Covered.

• 1:46:57Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:46:57Speaker 01

  I mean, this was just like epic, like, like I was ready for like, cause I said to my friend the night before, like, hey, man, you're gonna, you might have to help me on this. Like, we went pretty wild last night. Like, when they, when they're just delivering bottles of Scotch to the room. Yeah, you know, the hundreds of.

• 1:47:09Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:47:10Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 1:47:11Matt Farah?

  If you order a bottle of Scotch, room service, that's.

• 1:47:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, she'd bring the whole bottle. Can you bring a bottle in nineteen shot glasses?

• 1:47:17Matt Farah?

  Dude, Zach and I went to, I want to say it was the second gen Hyundai Genesis Coupe launch, the facelift in Vegas.

• 1:47:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:47:25Matt Farah?

  Mandarin Oriental in Vegas, which is a hotel most people don't even know exists in Vegas. It's a hotel within another hotel.

• 1:47:32Speaker 01

  It was the hotel, wasn't it called the hotel for a while or something?

• 1:47:36Matt Farah?

  It might have been, but it's like.

• 1:47:37Speaker 01

  The tall one inside the other one?

• 1:47:39Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's like, there's like seven floors of it inside whatever fucking, so we get, I mean, they put, it's Mandarin Oriental, so every room is all right. At least at a pretty high baseline level. But Zach and I, this was in our room sharing phase, where we get the double and share the room. Which we did until we were about thirty six.

• 1:47:57Speaker 01

  By the way, Ken Block and I shared rooms in the early days.

• 1:47:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, no.

• 1:48:00Speaker 01

  He was a multimillionaire, but we still shared rooms because there was a budget, because he was good about following a budget.

• 1:48:05Matt Farah?

  But the room, the, the, the adjoining room that, uh, the, our room was connected to, they left the door open. And I, I fucking peeked and it turns out that we were like the seventh bedroom of the Jay-Z suite. And they had not, and nobody was in that bitch. And it was literally like ten thousand square feet. There's a gym, there's a pool in it, there's a full bar, like where you would have a bartender and full liquor bottles. And nobody. And we were like, okay, well, how do we handle this? I'm like, well, we're gonna go to the dinner, we're gonna go to the, the, the presentation and all that. If we come back at like nine, ten at night, nobody's in, that's our room.

• 1:48:50Speaker 01

  That's our room, yeah.

• 1:48:51Matt Farah?

  We fucking did some damage in that bitch.

• 1:48:54Speaker 01

  So good.

• 1:48:54Matt Farah?

  But we couldn't like tell anybody.

• 1:48:56Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, trust me, this is the first time I'm telling the story. I'm never getting invited to an Audi event again.

• 1:49:01Matt Farah?

  Yeah, dude, Sanctuary in twenty, in two thousand nine, it must've been brand new.

• 1:49:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was brand new.

• 1:49:06Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:49:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was great.

• 1:49:07Matt Farah?

  That's a good hotel.

• 1:49:08Speaker 01

  Did you do Bull Run in two thousand six?

• 1:49:11Matt Farah?

  Uh, no, I did seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven. Yeah.

• 1:49:18Speaker 01

  We did two, I did two thousand and six, the ZO6 had just been launched.

• 1:49:22Matt Farah?

  Uh huh.

• 1:49:22Speaker 01

  We convinced, I, I don't even think it was out yet, like, no one had seen it yet. We convinced GM to give us a ZO6 for the week. And it was a ton of fun, but we got to Vegas and we actually separated from everyone from Bull Run because we were just kinda like done with everyone else on Bull Run. And we, we knew some girls in town, we called them, and next thing you know, we were partying in the actual Rain Man suite.

• 1:49:47Matt Farah?

  Like, from the movie?

• 1:49:48Speaker 01

  From the movie, like, it was the actual, I don't even remember. I don't even remember, it was one of those nights, but I remember that was one of those moments where like, yeah, this is a crazy life we live. Like, here I am, partying in the Rain Man suite.

• 1:49:59Matt Farah?

  I've heard that you can, I, I forget which one of the hotels in like old Vegas, like Fremont Vegas, is the hotel, uh, that's Biff's Pleasure Palace and back, and I've heard you can get the, uh, the Biff ten and suite in, in that hotel, but I've never actually tried.

• 1:50:15Speaker 01

  Well, isn't the Elvis suite still in, um, Westlake?

• 1:50:20Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I think so. I think so. I don't know, I've never tried, but I'm down with Fremont Street, though. Old Vegas is the shit.

• 1:50:27Speaker 01

  I like Fremont way better than, than, um, than actual Vegas.

• 1:50:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:50:30Speaker 01

  I don't like how hard it is to get around Vegas.

• 1:50:32Matt Farah?

  And Fad lives in Vegas now.

• 1:50:34Speaker 01

  Wait, I didn't know that.

• 1:50:34Matt Farah?

  Yeah, he went to Vegas. Yeah.

• 1:50:36Speaker 01

  What's he doing out there?

• 1:50:38Matt Farah?

  Uh, freelancing for one of these, like, autono racing teams that's participating in this Bahrain-based.

• 1:50:48Speaker 01

  He's a dad now, too.

• 1:50:48Matt Farah?

  He's a dad. He's a huge baby. He's a huge Viking baby, yes.

• 1:50:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, that sounds about right.

• 1:50:53Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's about right, yeah. Um, and I'm fucking store, he gotta come get his goddamn E36. He bought that E36 with an S54 swap.

• 1:51:01Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:51:01Matt Farah?

  It's been sitting at my fucking Gardena store for three months, he's gotta come get it.

• 1:51:07Matt Farah?

  Dude, what is 3-2-1 action, action? It's on your Instagram profile still, and I was like, what the fuck is that?

• 1:51:14Speaker 01

  So it's my new production company slash shell company slash creative agency. So basically-

• 1:51:23Matt Farah?

  Cayman Islands?

• 1:51:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, Cayman Islands, of course. Um, no, so basically I, um, Delaware, no. Actually, I think it's California, which is the dumbest thing ever. But, um, so you know, I stepped away from, I mean, I left Hoonigan and just kind of like kid eject. I was just, it was just, it was exhausting. Hoonigan was exhausting. Dealing with Ken's death was just tough and I was just felt like I was pulled in a thousand different directions. And I was also like trying to be a dad. And it was like a lot going on at once. And I was just like, yeah, I'm just not in this anymore. And I probably ejected way too far. Like I went like full opposite side. I call like-

• 1:51:58Matt Farah?

  Yeah, you bought a farm.

• 1:51:59Speaker 01

  I bought a farm.

• 1:52:00Matt Farah?

  It's a pretty hardcore eject.

• 1:52:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, I bought a farm. But when I went to go work for this, this other company, which by the way, the company called Superplastic, I did this, you know, Area 15? In Vegas?

• 1:52:09Matt Farah?

  That's, wait, what is that?

• 1:52:11Speaker 01

  Area 15?

• 1:52:11Matt Farah?

  Yeah, what is it?

• 1:52:12Speaker 01

  Area 15 is like an experiential, they have an experiential place. So they've got everything from like, it's definitely somewhere you should go high. Like it's definitely, like you go there and you walk through and you're like, I can't imagine being here sober. But the Meow Wolf is an artist that has a thing called Omega Mart there. And it's like a fake supermarket with like all weird items for sale. And it's all like an art installation thing.

• 1:52:33Matt Farah?

  Okay, cool.

• 1:52:34Speaker 01

  I just, I just designed and was sort of the lead creative on a project there called Dopamine.

• 1:52:39Matt Farah?

  Ah, good name.

• 1:52:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:52:40Matt Farah?

  That's a good fucking-

• 1:52:41Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:52:42Matt Farah?

  You come up with that?

• 1:52:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's fine.

• 1:52:43Matt Farah?

  God, you're good at naming shit.

• 1:52:44Speaker 01

  Yes, that's one of my specialties.

• 1:52:45Matt Farah?

  You are good at naming shit.

• 1:52:46Speaker 01

  The, so Dopamine, and it's all about like the chase for dopamine. And like all the different things we do for it. And, and it's this experience that you go through. I don't want to give too much away. It's going to open like a few weeks, but I did that with them. It was a ton of fun.

• 1:53:01Speaker 01

  But I sort of like was, I like woke up one day and like great company, great people. Actually Jen Van Dyke, who was the CEO I brought into Hoonigan, um, right before we sold the company. Who really helped us like kind of fix a culture problem we were having like she was great. I went, she was there. I went to go work with her. It was a ton of fun. But I sort of had this moment where I woke up one day and it was like, I realized I was in a rebound relationship. Like I was like sitting there looking at the girl on the couch being like, I don't love you.

• 1:53:27Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:53:29Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then so I was like, all right, I need to leave. I don't, and I, I needed to leave in a way that I didn't up, you know, I didn't.

• 1:53:36Speaker 01

  Do any damage to the company I was at.

• 1:53:37Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:53:38Speaker 01

  But also I needed to kind of like get back into what I was doing. And I, and I think two things. One was. When was the last time you worked for somebody?

• 1:53:46Matt Farah?

  Like other than. I work for on track right now.

• 1:53:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, but like really?

• 1:53:49Matt Farah?

  Dude, I was just doing customer service for a week. I wasn't, I wasn't writing articles.

• 1:53:54Speaker 01

  Okay, so you have a boss.

• 1:53:55Matt Farah?

  I was leading a group of 50 paying customers around the state of Arizona. I mean, yeah, I can be fired.

• 1:54:02Speaker 01

  Right, okay.

• 1:54:03Matt Farah?

  I have, there's, there are people who can tell me what to do.

• 1:54:06Speaker 01

  So I think one of the things I learned after being an entrepreneur for 13 years is I don't make, I'm not a good employee.

• 1:54:11Matt Farah?

  I'm definitely not a good employee.

• 1:54:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm ungovernable.

• 1:54:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I, I, I'm not ungovernable because I do genuinely want to help. And I do, and I do good customer service and stuff like that.

• 1:54:22Speaker 01

  Swim lanes though.

• 1:54:23Matt Farah?

  I don't either. Yeah, I don't either.

• 1:54:24Speaker 01

  Like I still think, I still think like I'm the head of the company even when I'm not. Right? Cause I'm still going, why are we doing it like that? And they're like, that's not your job. And now that you said it, like this person's upset with you.

• 1:54:35Matt Farah?

  A hundred percent.

• 1:54:36Speaker 01

  Right? Like I'm just, I'm used to people being upset with me, but not being able to do anything about it.

• 1:54:40Matt Farah?

  Yeah. No, I, if I couldn't like, if I couldn't do the exact thing that I do, I couldn't do anything.

• 1:54:46Speaker 01

  So, yeah, so I woke up one day and I was like, okay, I'm not happy doing this. And I want to go back to doing automotive, but like, I don't know exactly what that is. And I, so I like, I went about it in like a very, um, you know, I have severe ADHD.

• 1:55:01Speaker 01

  But I, I can keep it under control at some points, but like, I'm kind of all over the place. And I started to like, I spent the past year. And we don't need to talk about my therapy too much, but I like spent the last year like really looking at ADHD and like what it meant, like what is ADHD? Right? So I was never diagnosed with it as a kid. I clearly had it. I was the ADHD joke to all my friends. At zero to sixty, we used to do this thing, I think actually Spinelli started it, or Richard Chang started it, where I would just start talking and they would do this, which meant I was going on a tangent, like

• 1:55:35Matt Farah?

  Scott, get back to it.

• 1:55:36Speaker 01

  A tangent because I was all over the place all the time, right? And but I never dealt with it, right? I never dealt with it. And then, Hoonigan, I just, you know, I just got my dopamine hit from Hoonigan and just, and the ADHD thing helped. Like, oh, Scott wants, Scott likes low riders today, Scott likes donk, Scott likes Indy cars, like, what else does Scott like?

• 1:55:54Matt Farah?

  Huge team of people that can execute weird whims.

• 1:55:58Speaker 01

  And then I went to go work for a company where my ADHD was troublesome because I wasn't able to, it was like, no, we need you to do this today, like this. And I'm like, ah, I'm gonna go do this instead, you know? So I sat there and I was like, so last year I was like, okay, I need to figure out what the hell's going on with me. I'm forty-four years old. And I need to figure out like how like to deal with it. So I was actually really starting to have like a dark negative side to it, right? And I, and we don't need to get, and I think we talked about this a little last time, how like, you know, Ken's death was not just Ken's death, but it was this time where like, I had, there were all these other deaths I didn't deal with, Rachel's, I mean, all these other people who died in my life that I was just like, I'm working.

• 1:56:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:56:34Speaker 01

  I'll deal with it tomorrow, but Ken's death, my world stopped. I had no choice but to deal with it. It was like everything I did. I couldn't, I couldn't work out of it. I didn't really know how to deal with it and I didn't really, I, I just, once I, once I got through the initial part of it, I just dug back into it. And then the work didn't give me what I wanted out of it, maybe kind of whatever. And then I was just trying to manage all these things in life, right? Like, why do I own twenty-seven cars? Right? Like, why?

• 1:56:58Matt Farah?

  Twenty-seven? Yeah, it's bad. I own twenty-seven cars and like, more of them run.

• 1:57:03Speaker 01

  How many are at now? Still at twenty-seven? No, I'm at twenty-seven today.

• 1:57:06Matt Farah?

  Oh, my God.

• 1:57:07Speaker 01

  Actually, one of the content things.

• 1:57:09Matt Farah?

  Pain in the ass.

• 1:57:09Speaker 01

  It's such a pain in the ass. I got into the RS2 today and I'm like, the hell is that noise? I pop the hood and I look and the like, AC clutch is sticking and I'm like, Like, that's not an easy fix.

• 1:57:19Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:57:20Speaker 01

  Porsche decided that the Audi AC clutch wasn't good enough, so they had to make their own, which are NLA now. So now I gotta go search it down in like a WhatsApp group to go find one. But anyway, um, you know, I started to kind of look at like my life and started to realize that like, yeah, you're really creative. And that part has worked for you, but you're also kind of a nightmare for people. And like, people like, like I had this weird relationship with everyone at Hoonigan, which is like, I really think everyone loved working with me. But they were also like, we don't know what we're getting into today, right? Like, what is Scott gonna be today?

• 1:57:51Matt Farah?

  I think there are a lot of leaders that become leaders, but then can't handle being leaders for those exact reasons. Like you inspire people to follow you because of the ideas, but then when they're there, it's like, what am I supposed to do with any of this?

• 1:58:09Speaker 01

  Right. And also, I think that's one part of it too. And then also the blurring of like, what is leadership and what is management? Which is like a whole other world of things. And it's like, I don't want to be a manager to anyone.

• 1:58:18Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 1:58:19Speaker 01

  Like, I want to inspire you, but I don't want to yell at you for being late to work today.

• 1:58:22Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:58:23Speaker 01

  Right? Like, that's the part of the job I didn't want to do. And I got way too involved in that side of it. But I sat there and I was like, okay, I, I spent the past year like reading books about ADHD, better understanding like how it was affecting way more things in my life. Than just, oh, you're forgetful or you spin off and realizing why it was affecting my moods and all this other stuff. And also why I was, also why it makes me buy 27 cars. So I was like, all right, knowing this, knowing everything about myself, I'm just going to write a list of like what I want to do in life and what makes me happy. Right? And for me, the first thing is like, I, I'm just not money motivated. It's just not who I am. Um, I like to be secure, but like, I'm not the person who's like, oh, I made this much money. That meant it was a successful year. For me, it's like, oh, I got to do these things. That made it a more successful year.

• 1:59:08Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 1:59:08Speaker 01

  I would say for me, my most successful years were probably not my, my most financially successful years, right? And.

• 1:59:15Matt Farah?

  And you don't have enough money where working is optional, right?

• 1:59:18Speaker 01

  No, I mean, I don't want to get too much into it, but that bankruptcy that happened at Hoonigan also bankrupted all of my equity.

• 1:59:25Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 1:59:26Speaker 01

  Which was about 70%.

• 1:59:28Matt Farah?

  That's so great.

• 1:59:29Speaker 01

  I lost most of what I sold the company for. So like, yeah, so it definitely was a little bit of a reset.

• 1:59:34Matt Farah?

  Not great.

• 1:59:35Speaker 01

  Oh shit, it's not going to be as easy as I thought it was going to be to walk away.

• 1:59:38Matt Farah?

  Vultures.

• 1:59:39Speaker 01

  Yeah. So, anyway, um.

• 1:59:41Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 1:59:42Speaker 01

  So I sat down, I kind of said, you know what I like doing? I love doing different things. I love doing different projects. I want to be able to do a podcast for six months and then maybe sunset it for a little bit, go do something else. I want to go do a documentary. I want to be able to create a cool product with somebody. I want to go, and that's one of the reasons why I asked how the, how the road and track drive was. Like, I used to do that with my car club, Auto Creek, when I was 19. Like, I love doing, like, planning and running drives.

• 2:00:08Matt Farah?

  Those, I mean, those are really fun, actually, and I, and the people who come do seem to really enjoy them. Um, there's a lot of little things that go into it, but, but they are a good time. Rob Ferretti does them too. Matter of fact, he went to, he was in Sedona with a group of 30 cars the day after we were in Sedona with a group of 30 cars. He texts me, he goes, were you just in Sedona? And I was like, yeah, why? He's like, I'm, I'm here with like 30 cars and here's the hotels we're staying at. And I was staying at this other one and.

• 2:00:38Speaker 01

  But, you know, for me, it's like, I just want to be able to do all these different things and, you know, and you have like a very diversified life. Right? Like, you've got the road and track thing.

• 2:00:47Matt Farah?

  I have to.

• 2:00:48Speaker 01

  You've got this as a podcast that you've been doing for how long now?

• 2:00:51Matt Farah?

  12 years.

• 2:00:52Speaker 01

  12 years. Congratulations.

• 2:00:53Matt Farah?

  This is like episode 980 something.

• 2:00:55Speaker 01

  Congratulations. It's huge. And then you also have like Westside Collectors, like, which is like a whole other business. And although it all lives in automotive, they're all individual businesses.

• 2:01:05Matt Farah?

  Yeah, and all of them are hedges against, you know, because all, all four aren't through the roof at any one time. So right now, like YouTube's in the shit, but like, it's okay, because like parking's all right, magazine's good and whatever. And so it's all just like, you know, one or more will collapse under their own weight or the algorithm or whatever. And, and then there will be other things to do.

• 2:01:28Speaker 01

  Yeah. So for, for me, I was like, okay, I need to build a base company that can do all the things I want to do. Because I treated Hoonigan.

• 2:01:36Matt Farah?

  You could have like a fucking race service, basically, like an automotive production house.

• 2:01:42Speaker 01

  And it's like, for me, it's like, I treated Hoonigan like this for a bit, and it was, it was problematic in that I probably stretched Hoonigan broader than it should have been at points. Like, we did everything from. The Race of Gentlemen, because I thought pre-war fucking hot rods was cool.

• 2:01:55Matt Farah?

  Man, you want to talk about instant content death. I I'm totally with you. I wanted to go do it too, but not.

• 2:02:01Speaker 01

  And I love Mel and those guys. I love that whole crew and I enjoy it. And I would love to go make up the right piece of content for them. But it wasn't really the right piece of content for Hoonigan.

• 2:02:10Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:02:11Speaker 01

  Um, and you know, and I I I just.

• 2:02:14Matt Farah?

  You should come do the veteran run. The the the the street race in 120 year old cars.

• 2:02:19Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:02:20Matt Farah?

  Me and Zach do in Newport. It's a good fucking time.

• 2:02:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:02:23Matt Farah?

  That sounds awesome. Pre 1907 or earlier.

• 2:02:25Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 2:02:26Matt Farah?

  And it's like a 50 mile. I mean, it is a street race.

• 2:02:28Speaker 01

  They do a Model T race in Long Beach where they race up to the top of Signal Hill.

• 2:02:32Matt Farah?

  Really?

• 2:02:33Speaker 01

  With like old Model Ts.

• 2:02:34Matt Farah?

  Oh, we can get in on that. Yeah.

• 2:02:36Speaker 01

  But like, I like all that stuff. So for me, it's like, hey, how can I go broad, but then keep a company that works all together? So basically, I want to do client work and consulting. One great thing about having 20 years in the business is people will pay you. People will pay you to to do stuff for them like that. But then help use that to help sort of fund the projects that like, I just want to do. And like, I don't really care. Like, I and I actually don't really want a ton of other partners involved because it's like, it's a thing I just want to do on my own. Um, we're we're in talks right now, putting together like a documentary on Ken, or obviously something that I I'll I'll take some time to do that.

• 2:03:11Matt Farah?

  Certainly enough footage.

• 2:03:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I think that that's part of the the thing for me is I want to be able to like, do this for three or four months and then change and swap over and do this and and do that. Because in some ways I had that at Hoonigan, but then the other thing, like every day, even when I was filming Jim Kana, I was still running a company. Like, I didn't have that ability to like, just go do this one thing and be hyper focused on this one thing and not have to like, also worry about all this stuff in the background. So.

• 2:03:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Do you? Are you able to like, continue like?

• 2:03:43Matt Farah?

  Do you wanna chase what you think the audience wants? Or do you just wanna like, like Rick Rubin it? Where make the content that you wanna make? And just like, hope they find it?

• 2:03:54Speaker 01

  I mean, I, I love Rick Rubin. I just read his book.

• 2:03:56Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:03:57Speaker 01

  Um, I, I-

• 2:03:58Matt Farah?

  He has like contempt for the audience.

• 2:04:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, see, I don't have contempt for the audience. I have contempt for the algorithm.

• 2:04:05Matt Farah?

  Yeah, me too.

• 2:04:06Speaker 01

  Right, like, I believe that there's an, I know there's an audience that's there that wants to watch what I wanna watch. What I, what I realize is, is that the, the, we, we got on this and we, we lost track for a second, but the audience is inflated from what it really should be. So, before I say Rides, one of the biggest magazines on the newsstand, right? It was doing around 200,000 plus serp. 200,000. It's one of the biggest automotive newsstands.

• 2:04:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:04:30Speaker 01

  That's blah numbers on YouTube, right?

• 2:04:32Matt Farah?

  Well, yeah, but if they're spending seven bucks an issue, it's a different story, isn't it?

• 2:04:36Speaker 01

  It's a different relationship, but I think like, we all got to this expectation of a million plus, I mean, I'm looking behind you and there's a plaque on the wall that says, you know, Smoking Tire for passing, you know, 1 million subscribers.

• 2:04:47Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:04:47Speaker 01

  I don't even know how many subscribers Hoonigan had in total when we were done. Six, seven, all, with all the different channels, right?

• 2:04:52Matt Farah?

  Yeah, a lot.

• 2:04:53Speaker 01

  But like, like, that number is, is sort of out of control. Like, if you put all those people in a room, you'd be like, this is a lot of people that we can't actually, like, y- y- you can't really connect with them on, on that way. So for me, part of it, are you trying to, did Zach just leave?

• 2:05:10Matt Farah?

  I just like, slight, like, if Zach leaves to go to the bathroom or get water or something, that's normal. But he's been gone for long enough where I'm like, a little concerned.

• 2:05:19Speaker 01

  Like, like, do you wanna pause and check on him and make sure he's okay?

• 2:05:21Matt Farah?

  Maybe, like, it's one thing if he-

• 2:05:23Speaker 01

  I can also just keep talking by myself, I'll talk about-

• 2:05:26Matt Farah?

  I mean, Zach?

• 2:05:32Matt Farah?

  He might be on the phone and he was talking to, I, I don't, he was talking to someone earlier when you got here that was like, important? And maybe he had to take that call? And if so, that's fine. I just wanna make sure I can open the door and he's like, you know, fucking, today's the day we learn he has type 1 diabetes and he's on the floor, you know?

• 2:05:50Speaker 01

  He's having a seizure.

• 2:05:51Matt Farah?

  Yeah. I guess like the staff-

• 2:05:54Speaker 01

  It'd be weird to be like, we set the record.

• 2:05:57Matt Farah?

  And Zach died.

• 2:05:58Speaker 01

  Zach died. But Zach had to die for it, but we, we, we set the record, guys.

• 2:06:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it was a feat of-

• 2:06:05Speaker 01

  I hope that's the cut out.

• 2:06:08Matt Farah?

  No, but I think so. The, the point you were starting to make was like. The, the, it's inflated because it's being fed to people algorithmically. But it's not finding the people who really wanna watch it.

• 2:06:23Speaker 01

  There, there's like this thing that it has become a meme, which is like. If 50 people told you today they liked you, you would feel amazing. But if you only get 50 likes on Instagram, you feel like you, you suck.

• 2:06:35Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:06:36Speaker 01

  Right? Like, like we have moved into this world where like we just expect a certain level of validation in the digital world. But if you actually compare it to the validation in a regular world, like if you and I say.

• 2:06:47Matt Farah?

  I used to frame, um, video view counts in the context of Wembley stadiums.

• 2:06:53Speaker 01

  Yeah. Oh.

• 2:06:53Matt Farah?

  I used to go, oh shit, like.

• 2:06:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:06:55Matt Farah?

  Four Wembley stadiums.

• 2:06:57Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 2:06:58Matt Farah?

  You know, I.

• 2:06:58Speaker 01

  Same thing. And we would try to explain to people how big Jim Canna was.

• 2:07:02Matt Farah?

  I'm gonna switch it up, go with the AC Slater.

• 2:07:05Speaker 01

  We would compare it to populations of countries. Like this is the population of Ireland.

• 2:07:10Matt Farah?

  Aggressive.

• 2:07:12Speaker 01

  This video has done the population of Ireland in views. But you know, like if we said, hey, you know what? Let's do this podcast live. Let's do it in front of a live audience.

• 2:07:20Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:07:21Speaker 01

  And if 500 people showed up for that. And even if they only paid five bucks a piece, 10 bucks a piece, we would. High five each other going, man, that was great. We got 500 people to stop what they're doing.

• 2:07:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:07:31Speaker 01

  But you're gonna get. You know, 10, 15, well, I don't know what your, your viewership is, but you're gonna get a lot more than that, right? Like a hundred times more than that, maybe on an episode. And like, it's still like, we, we compare it differently, you know? And I, I'm trying to be.

• 2:07:45Matt Farah?

  It's hard to make those, the digital numbers feel like real people.

• 2:07:49Speaker 01

  Right.

• 2:07:49Matt Farah?

  And, and it's hard to. Bring those digital numbers to any other medium, whether it's an in-person event or selling a magazine or selling a fucking. Experi, you know, experience thing or, or anything like that.

• 2:08:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:08:04Matt Farah?

  That's why like, like Patreon is a good barometer. Because it's like the one to 2% of your like biggest fans.

• 2:08:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:08:13Matt Farah?

  Will basically, you know, contribute.

• 2:08:16Matt Farah?

  As much financial resources as selling ads to the other 99%, but they're much more involved.

• 2:08:23Speaker 01

  My whole concept for like what I want Patreon to be for, for everything I'm doing and whether that's the podcast or stuff I'm doing with 321 or other things is like, it's almost like they're like an advisory group, right? Like if you're paying for this, you should have a say, right? Like you should have a say. That doesn't mean that everything you say I'm gonna do, but like I'm going to wait, I'm going to wait your comment more than I'm going to wait a comment on YouTube because you cared enough to, especially your critique, right? Especially your critique, because you cared enough to, to say this is worth it for me to pay for. The person who watches five minutes of your video and is like, I fucking hate Scotto, I don't know how much I should wait that. Have they been watching me for months and all of a sudden don't like me in that episode? Well, then I should care,

• 2:09:08Speaker 01

  but I, I don't know, you know? But if you, but if you've been a subscriber for three, four months or three or four or five years for, for you guys, and then all of a sudden someone's like, hey, I don't like the direction you're going. I think that gives you like a better like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. You know, we should change that. So, cause you learn that, I mean, in the magazine world when a magazine doesn't sell, you're like, hmm, guess no one wants minivans on the cover of the magazine. We're not doing that anymore, you know? There goes the Previa challenge. So.

• 2:09:33Matt Farah?

  Previa challenge probably wouldn't. Who did? Was it the, uh, the Rallycross guys did the van pre?

• 2:09:39Speaker 01

  Van pre. Yeah. So that's done by, um, actually the guys who, uh, one of the, the head of marketing at Dixon does it, which is, uh, Jim York. Um, Jim York is like, I mean, Jim York is, is his own kind of crazy person. Uh, Jim York, and I, I love you Jim, but Jim York is a man of no skill who does very dangerous things, right? Like, like, like Jim York's the guy who's like, who's gonna jump that? Jim's like, I will. And his whole, um, his whole tagline is I'm never gonna die or I'm gonna live forever. And I'm like. Hopefully that ages well, hopefully that ages well, but he is, he is a man who hangs out with some of the most challenging people in the world like Travis Pastrana. And really has no talent, but.

• 2:10:22Matt Farah?

  Which is like does the same shit.

• 2:10:23Speaker 01

  But lacks the beer gene. Yeah, so he's doing the same stuff as Travis with, without really the skill of understanding how to do it. So he's, so that famous video from Cletus of the van jumping.

• 2:10:35Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 2:10:35Speaker 01

  Really, really big one. That was him. Like he's, he's that guy, but he kind of runs the van pre stuff which they were doing at Nitro Rallycross. But I think Nitro Rallycross is no more now.

• 2:10:43Matt Farah?

  Are they really?

• 2:10:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's kind of a bummer.

• 2:10:46Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:10:47Speaker 01

  Rally's had such a hard time in America, so.

• 2:10:49Matt Farah?

  It's just, they keep trying to find ways to make it a better spectator sport, but it never quite sticks, does it?

• 2:10:55Speaker 01

  So.

• 2:10:56Matt Farah?

  Thought Rallycross was promising.

• 2:10:57Speaker 01

  I thought Rallycross was the best option because Americans want their like paint bucket of soda and sit in the stands. And watch cars go door to door and crash into each other. Like I really thought that that was gonna be the piece. I think that it struggled in that, why Rallycross is so good in Europe is that the tracks are built specifically for Rallycross. They're not like temporary racetracks, so they like are really, really good tracks, which gets better racing, gets more passing. In the US in the early days of Rallycross, once you were out, like if you didn't get the whole shot.

• 2:11:28Matt Farah?

  You're, you're done.

• 2:11:29Speaker 01

  You were done, right? Like it was very hard to pass. Like maybe you could time a joker lap properly and get ahead, but otherwise that wasn't there. WRC has been talking about bringing the WRC to the US in Tennessee. So the rumor is Chattanooga area or national area. And I think that there's, I, I don't know a lot about what's going on internally there, but I, I think they're kind of looking at the Formula One success in America, right? I mean, holy shit.

• 2:11:57Matt Farah?

  Huge.

• 2:11:57Speaker 01

  Like, do you watch Formula One?

• 2:11:59Matt Farah?

  A, a little bit.

• 2:12:00Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 2:12:01Matt Farah?

  I watched, I watched a lot of fucking, I've watched all the drive to survives.

• 2:12:05Speaker 01

  Okay, yeah.

• 2:12:06Matt Farah?

  Um, so obviously the edited version of Formula One.

• 2:12:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 2:12:09Matt Farah?

  And I, I watch the races if I catch them. I don't wake up at fucking four in the morning to watch.

• 2:12:13Speaker 01

  So I was really into Formula One in the zero to sixty era, right? Like, so that was like the Brawn era, like. Like Lewis Hamilton coming in, like I was, I was really enjoying that era. And I was the guy who was like going to the bar that would like show the, you know, show the race at four in the morning and stuff like that. And then I just got too busy. It was, it was.

• 2:12:33Matt Farah?

  It's not convenient to watch Formula One.

• 2:12:35Speaker 01

  The sport changed, it was just like I got too busy. And now I'm in this world where like I go to some like barbecue in my neighborhood. And every guy there knows more about Formula One than I do and they're expecting me to know as much as.

• 2:12:48Matt Farah?

  You're the car guy, right?

• 2:12:49Speaker 01

  You should know this and I'm like, I don't know who.

• 2:12:51Matt Farah?

  They all watch Drive to Survive.

• 2:12:52Speaker 01

  Cause they're all like, they're loving it and I, I think the FIA is looking at that and saying, okay. How do we now import WRC? But instead, we all know who the audience is for Formula One, right? The audience for Formula One is particularly more elite audience. But if you look at WRC, you're like, hmm, WRC fits a little bit better in like similar to a NASCAR audience. Then, you know, sort of where F1 lives. And I think that that is like, it'll be questionable of like how they position it, right?

• 2:13:22Matt Farah?

  That'll be interesting to see if that works.

• 2:13:24Speaker 01

  What makes WRC, cause in order to enjoy rally, you have to be the kind of person who wants to like get hit by rocks and dirt. And by the way,

• 2:13:34Speaker 01

  I am the kind of person who likes getting hit by rocks and dirt. Like that is my people, like I like that.

• 2:13:40Matt Farah?

  You stay, you stand in the spray area.

• 2:13:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 2:13:44Matt Farah?

  Fuck, I once, I once took, to get that shot of the rally car passing. I once took a rock to the nuts at probably 110 mile an hour wheel speed. Close range. Tom Morningstar has the video of me going down. I fucking get the shot, I pan and then I drop on the ground. I think it ended up in the actual video we made, it was bad.

• 2:14:11Speaker 01

  We were in Mexico once, it was me and Ron. We were, he was shooting photos and I was shooting video or vice versa, it doesn't matter. We were standing right next to each other and there was this like over crest, like left hand turn, pretty fast, it was probably like a four or five. There, we were on the other side of a barbed wire fence, right? And the first five cars come through and everyone is basically running the same line, pretty shallow, pretty shallow. We're like, okay, Ken's sixth on road, he'll be the sixth car through here. And he comes through like it was a straightaway.

• 2:14:45Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:14:45Speaker 01

  Just full, flat out, over the crest, into the barbed wire fence. So we immediately start running and I was like, it was like, you know those like, uh, those toys from the forties where like everywhere like you have three people in a row and their hands all move together like an elf toy or something? We were basically that where we were running.

• 2:15:02Matt Farah?

  Like a foosball table.

• 2:15:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, like my kneecap was in the back of his knee as we were running. Like we were basically playing like the elephant game while running, right? And we were just running and the, I remember listening to the barbed wire whipping over our heads because he, cause Ken caught the barbed wire. And started ripping the barbed wire off the fences.

• 2:15:21Matt Farah?

  This is like out of a fucking Michael Bay movie.

• 2:15:23Speaker 01

  So, do you know Magic Johnson? Have you ever met him? Um, he's a.

• 2:15:27Matt Farah?

  The basketball player?

• 2:15:29Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no, no. He's a, we call him.

• 2:15:31Matt Farah?

  Matt Johnson.

• 2:15:32Speaker 01

  Matt Johnson.

• 2:15:32Matt Farah?

  Matt Johnson. I met Matt, yeah, I met Matt Johnson. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 2:15:35Speaker 01

  So Magic was up on the hill, caught the whole thing. So he's filmed this whole clip, it'll exist somewhere. Where the two of us are running, what we didn't realize was Ken also hit a massive boulder about this big that was in the air behind us. And like, I was like, I'm gonna die. It was totally, I'm gonna die feeling. And then we didn't die, right? And it was like, okay, we didn't die, great. And then we see Magic and Magic's like, you gotta see this footage. And we're like, we're like, oh, that's great, we didn't die. And then the next morning we wake up and the cover of the local newspaper is the photo of us running, like just probably running with a boulder in the air, barbed wire ripping and Ken just like sideways passing, like, that's rally racing.

• 2:16:12Matt Farah?

  Great shot.

• 2:16:13Speaker 01

  That's rally racing. Like you might die.

• 2:16:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:16:15Speaker 01

  You might die. And like, that's a different type of audience. Like at F1, it's like, you might, it might rain, you might get wet.

• 2:16:22Matt Farah?

  No, it's like the fucking running of the bulls, but with cars.

• 2:16:25Speaker 01

  It is running of the bulls.

• 2:16:26Matt Farah?

  It's the running of the bulls with cars. I've watched rally in person before.

• 2:16:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:16:30Matt Farah?

  And there's a lot of places that you can stand where you will, you could die.

• 2:16:35Speaker 01

  In, in Mexico, you go down there and they just yell, you know, burro at you, right? Like you're in like, you're in ass.

• 2:16:41Matt Farah?

  I think a couple of people died.

• 2:16:43Speaker 01

  Oh, I just heard about that. But not even.

• 2:16:45Matt Farah?

  In the pits.

• 2:16:46Speaker 01

  In the pits.

• 2:16:46Matt Farah?

  That's crazy.

• 2:16:47Speaker 01

  Yeah. Guy was, I guess, revving his engine and. Yeah.

• 2:16:51Matt Farah?

  Slipped off the clutch.

• 2:16:52Speaker 01

  I don't really, I don't understand, I mean, yeah, I don't understand the detail of what happened or thought he was in neutral.

• 2:16:56Matt Farah?

  But Baja's, I mean, they.

• 2:16:59Speaker 01

  It's a scary place.

• 2:17:00Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:17:00Speaker 01

  Yeah. It's also really scary when something does go bad down there because you realize that um the chance of people showing up to save you in a timely manner is pretty rough. Yeah. There's a, there's a hill climb down there that I really want to um, it's operating now. We, we sponsored it when um well, Hoonigan sponsored it when we did the, we did something with Fiat down there and it's mostly motorcycles.

• 2:17:24Matt Farah?

  I remember that with the fucking one, two, four, Abbot's, right?

• 2:17:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:17:28Matt Farah?

  What was it?

• 2:17:29Speaker 01

  Um, it was the San Mar, San Pedro Martir hill climb. It's like twenty-four miles long.

• 2:17:34Matt Farah?

  Wow.

• 2:17:35Speaker 01

  And uh, I really want to do an event there, but I've looked into a bunch of it and like the number one thing that you get into is like you have to medevac to San Diego, right? Like, you have to be ready for that, right?

• 2:17:46Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 2:17:47Speaker 01

  Like, there's just not a good enough trauma facility close enough that you have to like sit there and be like, okay, we have to pay for a helicopter.

• 2:17:54Matt Farah?

  Is it on the peninsula?

• 2:17:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:17:56Matt Farah?

  It is, okay.

• 2:17:56Speaker 01

  So, I mean, you know, you can probably go up to that, but like, at a certain point, you know, once you got them in a plane, you might as well fly the extra flight.

• 2:18:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 2:18:03Speaker 01

  Up to, up to San Diego, but uh.

• 2:18:05Matt Farah?

  Twenty-four mile hill climb, though, is serious.

• 2:18:07Speaker 01

  It's a really, really fun road. It's a really fun road.

• 2:18:09Matt Farah?

  Did you get to drive it when you were doing it?

• 2:18:11Speaker 01

  I did in a Dodge Ram, uh, fifteen hundred, and I was running a pretty good time. Like, by, cause I, I drove up and down it like seventeen times. So by the time it was done.

• 2:18:19Matt Farah?

  Yeah, you were a good number going.

• 2:18:20Speaker 01

  I was pretty good. I think I might have been faster than one of the nine elevens there.

• 2:18:24Matt Farah?

  I was in tarmac, all right?

• 2:18:26Speaker 01

  It was great. It's like, it's a national park.

• 2:18:28Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 2:18:29Speaker 01

  It like goes up to like an observatory.

• 2:18:30Matt Farah?

  Oh.

• 2:18:31Speaker 01

  So it's like a, it's a drive up, drive down. There's no back out way of it.

• 2:18:34Matt Farah?

  Sick.

• 2:18:34Speaker 01

  And uh, they had like just paved it when we were there. Yeah, it's a beautiful road.

• 2:18:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:18:38Speaker 01

  One day, one day, the Scotto Invitational.

• 2:18:40Matt Farah?

  That's when you, that's when you buy a Legends car and bring that.

• 2:18:43Speaker 01

  Go there for that, yeah.

• 2:18:44Matt Farah?

  The Scotto Invitational would be very sick.

• 2:18:47Speaker 01

  So, and then you, if it's, for me, it's like, it's not just motor sport. It has to be like a full, like, content thing. Like, you gotta go do and make a movie about it.

• 2:18:53Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 2:18:54Speaker 01

  It's like, go and make a really good start.

• 2:18:57Matt Farah?

  Vibe, but hill climbing.

• 2:18:58Speaker 01

  I like that. I like that. So.

• 2:19:00Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that'd be fun. Motorsport and Thad keeps talking about doing La Carrera over and over and over. And he's in typical Thad fashion. He's like, oh, like, all we have to do is like, buy like a a car that exists that qualifies. And then, you know, we'll do the event and then we'll sell it. And I'm like, so, so what you're saying is, we just like, buy like a hundred thousand dollar race car?

• 2:19:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:19:24Matt Farah?

  Just that, that's where we start that?

• 2:19:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's the starting point.

• 2:19:26Matt Farah?

  And he was like, yeah. And I was like, when we buy the race car?

• 2:19:32Matt Farah?

  What? Which, who's, who's writing the check?

• 2:19:35Speaker 01

  Sounds like a Westside Collection sponsor. Yeah, I see where this is going. Yeah.

• 2:19:41Matt Farah?

  Um, I wrote this down.

• 2:19:44Speaker 01

  Do you have, you have a list of things?

• 2:19:45Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I just, you know, if we're gonna do long radio and you can't, I can't go fucking unprepared. Um, what do you think?

• 2:19:54Speaker 01

  I wrote a few things down.

• 2:19:55Matt Farah?

  Did you?

• 2:19:55Speaker 01

  Yeah. Go for your list.

• 2:19:57Matt Farah?

  Well, what did you, what do you think that, like, okay, things are sort of moving away from long form to short form you live? All right, sorry about that, kids. Zach had to go do a thing and we'll, we'll check in with him later. Let's, um, now that we were slightly thrown off kilter, let's go to the Patreon because it's very important. Uh, first things first, Scotto, pass me that pen that's sitting on my notebook. Uh, our new Patreon collab is coming Tuesday, the, uh, 19th. That's tomorrow if you're live or today if you're listening to the recorder, the day comes up.

• 2:20:41Matt Farah?

  Tactile turn pens. I love these things. This is our new collab, Scotto.

• 2:20:45Speaker 01

  I'm a big pen guy.

• 2:20:46Matt Farah?

  Dude, these are, these are sweet. Titanium and aluminum.

• 2:20:49Speaker 01

  What would you call this? Like, so, like?

• 2:20:51Matt Farah?

  It's ribbed?

• 2:20:53Speaker 01

  It is definitely ribbed for your pleasure.

• 2:20:54Matt Farah?

  For your pleasure.

• 2:20:55Speaker 01

  It is definitely ribbed for your pleasure. I like the action on it, though. It's quite nice.

• 2:20:58Matt Farah?

  That bolt action thing is great. So Patreon, patrons only. Exclusive collab just for you guys. And, uh, you can get it, uh, on the link is on the Patreon. Tuesday morning. And of course, if you're a patron at patreon.com slash the smoke entire podcast, you can get the show early. You can ask us questions. You can watch the live stream. You can get an extra show every month. You can get exclusive access to collabs like this and others. And we're going to go to some of your questions now. We have probably a lot. Yep.

• 2:21:35Speaker 01

  Let's go through them.

• 2:21:36Matt Farah?

  We have a lot. Let's see. Let's see. Let's just start at the beginning here.

• 2:21:43Matt Farah?

  Jeremy says, is the end of Motor Trend TV shows and the restructuring or whatever of Warner Brothers Discovery? An indicator that TV as we know it is dying or dead? Is it just the first of many to fail?

• 2:21:56Speaker 01

  Can I answer this?

• 2:21:57Matt Farah?

  Yes.

• 2:21:57Speaker 01

  Hollywood is dead.

• 2:21:58Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:21:59Speaker 01

  Um, and Hollywood is dead. And then that is a trickle down of all other things being in a bad place. Because I think everything aspires to be Hollywood, which was probably a mistake. It's funny because the Motor Trend, very similar to the Hoonigan bankruptcy. Hoonigan ended up getting swept up in a much bigger company's issues.

• 2:22:20Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:22:21Speaker 01

  Like, like Hoonigan.

• 2:22:22Matt Farah?

  It wasn't like Hoonigan themselves were.

• 2:22:24Speaker 01

  1.2 billion dollars. I wish. I wish.

• 2:22:27Matt Farah?

  It would have been fun. If you lost a 1.2 billion.

• 2:22:30Speaker 01

  We would have had to burn a town down.

• 2:22:32Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:22:32Speaker 01

  It would have been fun.

• 2:22:33Matt Farah?

  Right there. Yeah.

• 2:22:35Speaker 01

  But I think, you know, the same situation you have here where Motor Trend is just caught up in the Warner Brothers issue that they're dealing with. And they're just going through and hacking whatever makes sense. I mean, I, the conversation for this was probably a bunch of people in a room who didn't even know what roadkill was.

• 2:22:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:22:50Speaker 01

  Right? Like, that's just the unfortunate of how things like that get lost in huge companies.

• 2:22:56Speaker 01

  I, I guess it's like, to me, like, TV already feels dead.

• 2:23:02Speaker 01

  And I think streaming is sort of the became the new TV, but I also think streaming is dead. Which like, I don't think anyone wants to admit yet, but I think that we moved through this.

• 2:23:12Matt Farah?

  You don't know how many people are watching.

• 2:23:14Speaker 01

  It's not even how many people are watching, it's the quality of content, like.

• 2:23:18Matt Farah?

  Are you saying that Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson wasn't the pinnacle of sports entertainment?

• 2:23:23Speaker 01

  No, but Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson is a perfect example of not really knowing what to do.

• 2:23:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:23:29Speaker 01

  Right, like, like it took Jake Paul to pull an internet level stunt to shut down the Netflix servers. But then in the end, but this is the algorithm problem.

• 2:23:38Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 2:23:38Speaker 01

  In the end, the content wasn't good.

• 2:23:39Matt Farah?

  In the end, it wasn't.

• 2:23:40Speaker 01

  It wasn't a good fight.

• 2:23:41Matt Farah?

  Not only was it not a good fight for fighting sake, like the commentating wasn't good, like the quality of the product.

• 2:23:50Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 2:23:51Matt Farah?

  Was particularly bad, noticeably bad. Yeah.

• 2:23:55Speaker 01

  And I think that that's where that goes to, which is the expectation that things need to do. I couldn't even imagine how many tens of millions had to tune in to do that to their servers, right? And figure that out.

• 2:24:07Matt Farah?

  Someone said 60 million, I read 60 million people.

• 2:24:10Speaker 01

  That sounds alright, that sounds alright. But you know, you look at like the height for me of good programming was, was The Sopranos.

• 2:24:20Matt Farah?

  Sure.

• 2:24:20Speaker 01

  Kicked off, right? The Sopranos, The Wire, like those shows kicked it off.

• 2:24:24Matt Farah?

  Early HBO.

• 2:24:25Speaker 01

  And it went to like Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead before episode, before season five or whatever. Like the Mad Men, right? Like, like there was this era, that wasn't really streaming, but it was streaming supported. Like you were either watching it on TV or you're watching whatever, Game of Thrones, all those kinds of things. Was this era, and then Netflix obviously had plenty, I mean Ozark is a fantastic show, right? You had this era of where that was all delivering and really delivering really well. And then it just became, just like YouTube, it became a game of quantity over quality. And I think at first we were so excited about it.

• 2:25:01Matt Farah?

  They're doing things that could be like a 90 minute documentary and it takes, it's five 50 minute episodes. And it's just full of fluff and shit.

• 2:25:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I think that in general, I think that's one side of it. The other side of it is. We moved into this model of the $400 million film.

• 2:25:17Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:25:18Speaker 01

  In the Hollywood side and because that's the type of money you need for capital. Like, you know, for venture capitalists to get their money back and investing in a way that matters. Like the $10 million film or the $1 million film, like the movie Swingers, like that stuff just doesn't exist anymore.

• 2:25:33Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:25:33Speaker 01

  And I think that, I think the only thing that may save TV right now. And I'm going to give it away in my sauce here, but I think the one thing that may save is.

• 2:25:44Matt Farah?

  Is me.

• 2:25:44Speaker 01

  No, is the world of the indie show that lives on Netflix. I think Netflix and all of them have also become too algorithmic to sit there and say. If this show doesn't do this many views in the first three episodes, it's not getting another season. Right. And it's all built like that. Nothing is given time to breathe anymore and get good. Top Gear. Like Top Gear, see, one, two, and three, were not good.

• 2:26:09Matt Farah?

  Yeah, but it was just.

• 2:26:09Speaker 01

  And then it became great.

• 2:26:11Matt Farah?

  Default car show and.

• 2:26:13Speaker 01

  They just kept it awkward that I'm sitting in Zach's seat. No, no, it's fine. I'm only turning around to look at the name.

• 2:26:16Matt Farah?

  It's just a weird, I needed, I needed a way to read the questions.

• 2:26:19Speaker 01

  Well, and I think that that, I mean, Top Gear is a perfect example. Like, why is Top Gear, why was Top Gear so good for so long? Was because it, it checked all the boxes that I was talking about before in a way that you don't think about. Like, it was a government funded, a government funded show by the people that wasn't controlled by anything. They could shit all over a manufacturer and not get, not hear the repercussions from it. There was no advertising on BBC that was going to get mad about what they said about the new Porsche or whatever.

• 2:26:47Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:26:48Speaker 01

  They could do what, they weren't depending on an algorithm because it was just on broadcast. And they were basically allowed to do whatever they wanted.

• 2:26:55Matt Farah?

  No algorithm and no advertisers. I mean, what a luxury.

• 2:26:58Speaker 01

  People have asked me like, oh, could you make a new, you know, a new Top Gear, like, you know, next generation Top Gear? I'm like, I just don't, unless it was to go make it for the BBC where you had that same ability. But even now, I think the BBC is too afraid of making things that are upsetting people. I just don't think it's possible.

• 2:27:14Matt Farah?

  You would need the, the same conditions to exist that created the first Top Gear, which those conditions do not exist right now.

• 2:27:21Speaker 01

  Yeah. And matching their chemistry is.

• 2:27:23Matt Farah?

  Right. Well, that's. Yeah, it's a whole other problem. Dustin Bateman says, how do you feel your directorial skills have evolved over the years? Do you think you could direct a feature film?

• 2:27:32Speaker 01

  First off, Dustin Bateman, literally like, if not customer number one at Hunnigan, he's definitely in the top 100 customers.

• 2:27:40Matt Farah?

  I was customer number one.

• 2:27:41Speaker 01

  You were customer one at the store.

• 2:27:43Matt Farah?

  At the store.

• 2:27:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was actually gonna bring the dollar with me today to take a photo and I forgot. But he, like, when we started selling stickers, he was like one of the early guys. And has stuck through and was also like one of the first people to sign up on my Patreon.

• 2:27:55Matt Farah?

  Oh, okay. Shout out to Dustin.

• 2:27:57Speaker 01

  But, um, how do I think they've changed?

• 2:28:01Speaker 01

  I had no idea what I was doing when I started this. I was a magazine guy who showed up to be like, yeah, I guess I can be a filmmaker. And it was guys like Ben Conrad, um, who was, who was directing with, uh, Logan at the time. Um, he's actually the guy that went on to start Donut.

• 2:28:19Speaker 01

  You know, those guys helped me kind of become that. So I would say the number one thing that's changed is confidence. Like, I don't second guess myself as much. Like, I kind of know what I need and what I want. And I think the other thing is I've learned to trust other people. Like, in the beginning, I, I, I felt like I had to, like, double check everything.

• 2:28:37Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:28:37Speaker 01

  And like, look it through everyone's lens and just not trust that people were gonna do something. And I realized that instead, what I needed to do was develop trust with people so that they could do the job I needed them to do, instead of like, micromanage them. And like, it's really difficult for me to do that. Like, I'm a very kind of controlling person. And then I also think, um, you get enough, this is like a weird thing to say, and I try to say this as humbly as possible, but like, you have enough successes that you become a little less afraid to fail.

• 2:29:10Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:29:10Speaker 01

  Right? Like, like, your first few times, you're like, this is my one chance up at bat. And if I don't hit the ball, they might not ever ask me to be up at bat ever again.

• 2:29:19Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 2:29:19Speaker 01

  Right? You're very imposter syndrome. You get a couple in, and you're like, okay, I'm willing to try something different this time. Because if this one doesn't do well, yeah, you might only be remembered by your last trick, but I got a lot of other things I've done, you know, you kind of build that. So that would be one. And just learning from the other people around me was like, was a, was a big one for me, so.

• 2:29:37Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's, I mean, that Derek's question, Derek has like a seven-part question, but it boils down to, do you have any tips for improving your creative eye when it comes to photography or cinematography beyond just practicing more?

• 2:29:51Matt Farah?

  Work with good people and watch what they're doing.

• 2:29:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, seat time's a big part of it. The other one for me was, I didn't really watch a lot of our competitors, meaning I've only watched two episodes of Donut my whole life. One of them was because I was on it. And then the other one was because someone was like, you need to watch this episode. And it wasn't because I didn't, you know, respect or appreciate what those guys did. It was that I wanted to not be tainted by the other stuff people were doing in my space.

• 2:30:19Matt Farah?

  I used to do that too. Not want to watch because of that, yeah.

• 2:30:22Speaker 01

  I've switched. I've started watching a lot of stuff this past year because also I'm out of the industry. I'm not doing it as much. It was kind of interesting to see where people are today. But in the early days when we were pioneering it, I think it was looking at stuff that felt adjacent to my space, but like done in a different way. Like, I will be honest, there were makeup vloggers who influenced the way we did things at Hoenig and. Like, I was just looking at things that were successful, that were doing well, or had a particular look. Casey Neistat was a huge, huge influence on us early on. Do you know Casey Neistat?

• 2:30:53Matt Farah?

  I know who he is. I've never met him, yeah.

• 2:30:55Speaker 01

  But, I never met him either, but like his content and what he was doing and the way he was going about doing it was huge. So I think the same thing goes for, for like, especially for automotive photography. I have a basic rule, which is like, if you remove the cars, it's still a good photo.

• 2:31:11Matt Farah?

  Yeah, okay.

• 2:31:12Speaker 01

  Right? Like, is it still a good photo if you remove the car? And I think that that's really important sometimes. Not every shot, but sometimes like if you watch a Jim Kana and you pluck the car out, you're like, that's still a pretty photo.

• 2:31:22Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:31:23Speaker 01

  Like, it's not Ansel Adams, but like.

• 2:31:25Matt Farah?

  But it's visually nice.

• 2:31:26Speaker 01

  Visually, like, do the lines line up? And I think a lot of times people get so caught about the car.

• 2:31:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:31:30Speaker 01

  That they forget that like, the whole scene tells the story. And that is the other one for me. For me, does this, does the shot tell a story? And if it doesn't, then it's just pretty. Like, the shot has to help tell the story. And I think when you start thinking about it that way versus thinking about it as like, you know, is it, does it follow the, this rule of thirds? And like, there's all these like, things you can learn about cinematography, but for me, I just like the story. Like, you know, move the, move it, move the camera a little to the left because I want to catch a little bit of that, what that sign says. Because even if your eyes don't notice it immediately, like, maybe it reads, you know, it'll read differently.

• 2:32:06Matt Farah?

  Slightly richer frame kind of thing.

• 2:32:08Speaker 01

  What do you got next?

• 2:32:09Matt Farah?

  JDM Fanboy, top three cars you own that have the least likely chance of getting built?

• 2:32:14Speaker 01

  This is a true, true follower of mine. Like, this is disciple level. Favorite three cars that'll probably never run? I don't know if I to feel complimented or insulted in that.

• 2:32:28Matt Farah?

  What are your three favorite non-running cars right now?

• 2:32:32Speaker 01

  I have, I have a 1985 or 86, I'm not sure. Synchro Quantum Wagon.

• 2:32:40Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 2:32:41Speaker 01

  And I have this like dream of building it into like.

• 2:32:43Matt Farah?

  It's a hundred grand to make that car worth nine thousand bucks.

• 2:32:46Speaker 01

  Exactly. So that's one, that's one. I hate to say this, but like my Toyota Corolla I was mentioning before with the VR6. Like, there's a lot of work to get that thing finished and to get it there. But that's probably another one in my head. And then I have this other. I also have, I have an F600, Ford F600. 1975 Ford F600 Crew Cab. That has been put on a different chassis. I bought it from a friend. It sits like that now. And I also have, I have an engine, I'm not gonna give away too much, but I have a famous engine from a Hoenig in car. That I ended up somehow, like the weird things you get in a divorce.

• 2:33:25Speaker 01

  Like, I somehow have this. I never wanted it, but now that I have it, I might as well put that engine in this, into this F600.

• 2:33:33Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 2:33:33Speaker 01

  But it's one of those things where in my head, I'm like, oh, I could build that in a weekend. And then like I go and look at other people who build these cars and they're like, yeah, it took me like seven years to build this thing.

• 2:33:43Speaker 01

  So I don't know, that's probably my list.

• 2:33:44Matt Farah?

  Okay, cool. Lemonhead, assuming no maintenance needed, what's the cheapest way to get the V12 experience in a car? V12 experience is in quotation.

• 2:33:56Speaker 01

  No maintenance, no maintenance. I mean, that's obviously an eight series.

• 2:34:00Matt Farah?

  Fantasyland, yeah.

• 2:34:02Speaker 01

  What would it be for you?

• 2:34:03Matt Farah?

  I mean. Yeah, to get the V12, because like you could buy a Mercedes S, an old S600.

• 2:34:12Speaker 01

  That's probably.

• 2:34:12Matt Farah?

  You could buy an old Jaguar, like XJ12. You know.

• 2:34:17Speaker 01

  You could buy an E-Type with a.

• 2:34:18Matt Farah?

  True.

• 2:34:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, with a V12.

• 2:34:19Matt Farah?

  But if you want literally the cheap, like the cheapest, you could buy cheap cars with V12s in them. But they won't give you the V12 experience you're probably looking for, right? Like, I would say the cheapest way to really get a V12 experience will be like Aston DB7.

• 2:34:36Speaker 01

  That's a good one.

• 2:34:36Matt Farah?

  Is a pretty good one.

• 2:34:41Matt Farah?

  I mean, maybe you could do a Mercedes 600 if you put like that Zonda exhaust on it, which would sound terrible.

• 2:34:48Speaker 01

  What about the, um, the maintenance, the problem, the minute you said mate, no maintenance needed.

• 2:34:54Matt Farah?

  No maintenance is like.

• 2:34:55Speaker 01

  And then the word cheap. This is like the old like.

• 2:34:58Matt Farah?

  I mean, dude, I got.

• 2:34:58Speaker 01

  Have it good, you can have it fast or you can have it cheap, but you can't, you can only have two.

• 2:35:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah, like you could probably get, there's downstairs in the underground level of West Side Collector Car Storage Playa Vista right now. I have an Espada that hasn't run for 30 years.

• 2:35:12Speaker 01

  So like. Is it yours?

• 2:35:14Matt Farah?

  No, it's a customer. No, it's a customer. She inherited it and so it hasn't run. It's, it's a project for, Aaron Robinson says that if I can get it to a lift, he could get it running in a weekend.

• 2:35:26Speaker 01

  I believe that.

• 2:35:26Matt Farah?

  And that's probably true.

• 2:35:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:35:28Matt Farah?

  Uh, but anyway.

• 2:35:29Speaker 01

  It's such an ugly, beautiful car.

• 2:35:31Matt Farah?

  Oh, they're weird. Oh, they're funky as hell, but, but you get them, one that doesn't have the big bumpers.

• 2:35:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:35:37Matt Farah?

  They, they're cool. The right wheels, they look fucking rad.

• 2:35:41Speaker 01

  They actually look like a Volkswagen Quantum Coupe, but that's a whole other story.

• 2:35:45Matt Farah?

  Same family.

• 2:35:45Speaker 01

  Yeah. Uh, well, here's a question on that though, is, well, I guess it's not technically a V, it's a W, but like, am I crazy to think that the, that the Continental GT, that's a V, that's a W12.

• 2:36:00Matt Farah?

  A W12, yeah.

• 2:36:00Speaker 01

  Right? Is a V12 experience?

• 2:36:03Matt Farah?

  I, I don't think it's the one that people are really looking for.

• 2:36:06Speaker 01

  Cause it's a W.

• 2:36:06Matt Farah?

  It's a, it just doesn't.

• 2:36:07Speaker 01

  Two VR6s.

• 2:36:08Matt Farah?

  It doesn't sound like a V12. It doesn't rev like one.

• 2:36:12Speaker 01

  Incredibly cheap right now.

• 2:36:13Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah. Well, it doesn't mean they're bad cars.

• 2:36:15Speaker 01

  You can get one with 60,000 miles on it for 18 grand.

• 2:36:18Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:36:18Speaker 01

  Which is absurd.

• 2:36:19Matt Farah?

  Yeah. And here's what it needs.

• 2:36:20Speaker 01

  Everything.

• 2:36:21Matt Farah?

  Needs a $30,000 set of ceramic brakes, a full air suspension rebuild.

• 2:36:26Speaker 01

  Dash removed to change a fuse because Audi built it.

• 2:36:29Matt Farah?

  I fucking love Bentley GTs. So I just, that Arizona trip, I was just driving the new one. It's unbelievable, but I would not want one used, that, that used. We have, you know, Hannah drives a 91 Bentley.

• 2:36:43Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, yeah.

• 2:36:44Matt Farah?

  Six and three quarter and it's awesome, but that's a different thing. Meh says, are there any mods someone can do to their car that would make you more likely to buy their car than if it was stock? Conversely, what mods would make you walk away? So if I saw a car that had a certain set of mods, would I be more likely to buy it than if it was just stock?

• 2:37:07Speaker 01

  A really good set of wheels?

• 2:37:09Matt Farah?

  Could help.

• 2:37:10Speaker 01

  And like a basic suspension. Like if you went to go look at, let's even talk about like a 911.

• 2:37:17Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:37:17Speaker 01

  Right, like if I went to go look at a 911 and it's got a ton of mods on it, I don't want it.

• 2:37:20Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 2:37:20Speaker 01

  But if it had like a set of KW coilovers and, you know, whatever, a set of speed lines on it.

• 2:37:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:37:27Speaker 01

  Like, yeah, it's pretty good, mainly because the wheels would probably be worth more if they sold them separate from the car.

• 2:37:32Matt Farah?

  Hmm.

• 2:37:33Speaker 01

  Right, and also it makes it look nicer on day one.

• 2:37:36Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:37:36Speaker 01

  Nothing's worse than being a guy who works in the car world and then buying a car that's like not modded at all and having to like show up somewhere and be like, why are you not, why are you, yeah, like the first day, like, cool, lower it, bro.

• 2:37:48Matt Farah?

  Wheels, bro, yeah.

• 2:37:49Speaker 01

  That's probably it, but anything more than, like, I am now the kind of person who wants to find a car that no one's ever touched.

• 2:37:54Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's the problem, the problem with, with, with being someone who modifies cars is that the person who wants to mod it and the person who wants to keep it stock are looking for the same car.

• 2:38:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 2:38:04Matt Farah?

  You know, I would do, I would buy if it was a, like a mid 2000s BMW and it had like a Dynan package.

• 2:38:13Speaker 01

  But that's, I, I, I think that that's

• 2:38:16Matt Farah?

  Brand name.

• 2:38:17Speaker 01

  Stretching the modding.

• 2:38:18Matt Farah?

  Okay.

• 2:38:18Speaker 01

  Because to me, that's just a Dynan car, like, you know, I, I think there's certain things.

• 2:38:23Matt Farah?

  It was a Scirocco with a Callaway Turbo.

• 2:38:25Speaker 01

  That I'd buy.

• 2:38:26Matt Farah?

  I'd buy that.

• 2:38:27Speaker 01

  That's actually another good one, if it's a mod that was super period correct and rare.

• 2:38:32Matt Farah?

  Right.

• 2:38:32Speaker 01

  And knowing that it's all in the car makes it complete.

• 2:38:35Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:38:35Speaker 01

  Definitely that, there was a Callaway Turbo GTI that sold for like 50,000 on Brad trailer.

• 2:38:40Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:38:40Speaker 01

  And I was like, yeah, that was a really nice one. That was really nice.

• 2:38:42Matt Farah?

  Yeah, find another one.

• 2:38:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 2:38:44Matt Farah?

  Good luck.

• 2:38:44Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 2:38:45Matt Farah?

  Mr. Miao Gi said, Scott, are you still in touch with Dr. Rouven? Since he moved to Lamborghini?

• 2:38:52Speaker 01

  I have spoken to him since he went to Lamborghini, but I haven't spoken to him much in the past year. He actually has a Schrick valve cover of mine for an eight valve. Like I literally, this is a valve cover that doesn't even go, I mean, I guess I could put on my swallow tail, but like, it's a car, it's a valve cover I have to build an engine for. That's like my level of depravity at this point.

• 2:39:08Matt Farah?

  You have one part.

• 2:39:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I should, I should text him now so I remember, but I haven't spoken to him much in the past year. But, uh, Dr. Crazy, as he's known, uh, Rouven, do you know Rouven?

• 2:39:19Matt Farah?

  No.

• 2:39:20Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 2:39:20Matt Farah?

  No idea who that is.

• 2:39:21Speaker 01

  He was at Audi and then was like a test driver slash engineer. I don't even know what his job is. And now he's like, I think he's like C-suite at Lambo now or something. Yeah, like technology or something like that.

• 2:39:31Matt Farah?

  Good for himself. Uh, I hope Matt likes my username. Uh, my sports car experience begins and ends with a Miata. What car should I turo for a weekend to expand my horizons? That contrasts a Miata experience.

• 2:39:46Speaker 01

  If you were short enough to fit in a Miata, it's probably the best experience. Bang for the buck.

• 2:39:49Matt Farah?

  Yeah, but if you want to expand your horizons, I would find a Hellcat, a 911.

• 2:39:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:39:56Matt Farah?

  Or a 60's muscle car.

• 2:39:58Speaker 01

  Definitely a 60's muscle car.

• 2:39:59Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:40:00Speaker 01

  That's like a whole different space.

• 2:40:01Matt Farah?

  If you go from Miata to Hellcat.

• 2:40:03Speaker 01

  I don't recommend anyone go drive a 911 because I feel like the driving of a 911 is so superior. That then you have the 911 bug and then you live in a world of cars you can't afford.

• 2:40:12Matt Farah?

  Hmm.

• 2:40:13Speaker 01

  Like, that's just, that's just like my, my, my take on that. Um, but a Miata is like pretty good. And I'm not a, I'm not a Miata boy because I don't fit in them.

• 2:40:22Matt Farah?

  Yeah, but you get it.

• 2:40:23Speaker 01

  But I get it. Like, I get it. I totally understand like what makes them good. Um, but the muscle car one is, is pretty good. A good slot, like a, a car that like has like a lot of tank slap in it when you have to correct it.

• 2:40:35Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 2:40:36Speaker 01

  There's something fun there.

• 2:40:37Matt Farah?

  Real sloppy steering. Uh, Chef Neil, you have 20,000 bucks a year, a year, which is like 1,600 a month, 1,500 a month, to spend on a DoorDash car. So a car you're delivering food in. Couple nights a week, never goes over 40 miles an hour, needs to be engaging manual transmission.

• 2:41:00Speaker 01

  Got it, got it.

• 2:41:00Matt Farah?

  Yeah, what do you got?

• 2:41:01Speaker 01

  Toyota Previa. Manual transmission Toyota Previa with a supercharger. Go. Because here's the thing, if you pull up with too fancy of a car, a DoorDash, I'm not giving you a good tip.

• 2:41:11Matt Farah?

  Oh, for sure.

• 2:41:12Speaker 01

  So you're rolling an old Previa, if you know, you know. But if you roll up in a Previa slammed on some Volks and I see it, you're getting a tip and a high five.

• 2:41:19Matt Farah?

  A huge tip, yeah. 20K a year, too. You could buy Previas and just throw them away when they're done.

• 2:41:27Speaker 01

  Or you could have the most batshit 2J Previa.

• 2:41:31Matt Farah?

  I mean, I'd have to, you'd have to go hot, I'd have to go with a hotchi.

• 2:41:35Speaker 01

  Oh, just because it's the ultimate delivery vehicle?

• 2:41:36Matt Farah?

  It's the ultimate delivery vehicle. How do you not have a fucking hotchi with the black top?

• 2:41:42Speaker 01

  Here's another good one. Audi S8 D2, because you're the transporter.

• 2:41:47Matt Farah?

  Oh, God, they're so good.

• 2:41:48Speaker 01

  Like if you had, like-

• 2:41:49Matt Farah?

  I saw you bought one.

• 2:41:50Speaker 01

  I have one.

• 2:41:51Matt Farah?

  Does it work?

• 2:41:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, it works. I was gonna drive it up here today, but-

• 2:41:54Matt Farah?

  Is it good?

• 2:41:56Speaker 01

  It's 2002 good.

• 2:41:58Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 2:41:58Speaker 01

  Like, it's, I'm gonna manual swap it.

• 2:42:01Matt Farah?

  Are you? Can you?

• 2:42:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, they, I mean, in Europe, they came manual, so I bought an entire manual swap from Europe.

• 2:42:06Matt Farah?

  Oh, wow.

• 2:42:07Speaker 01

  It's OEM swap.

• 2:42:08Matt Farah?

  Does it basically feel like the S4 when you do that?

• 2:42:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, it's, I don't know, I haven't driven one yet, but the gearbox in it is the letdown. Because really, it's like, it's a, you know, it's the 4.2 V8, it's the engine that Clarkson said is one of the greatest engines of all time.

• 2:42:20Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:42:21Speaker 01

  It revs to like 8 grand.

• 2:42:22Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:42:23Speaker 01

  The thing's fantastic, but the torque converter is like, nooo, like it just doesn't rev.

• 2:42:29Matt Farah?

  Maybe, or 5 speed?

• 2:42:30Speaker 01

  And it's pre-intelligent automatic. It's like, it's good old fashioned slushbox auto. So I'm gonna manual swap that. It was my, um, Ronin was like such an influential movie for me, so I loved that car as a kid. So that is a great delivery vehicle, though, because that is what a transporter was. Although it might have been a D3, but I don't remember.

• 2:42:49Matt Farah?

  I was working at a Porsche Audi dealer when those cars came out. And driving them around, I mean, they were brand new, rolling off the truck, brand new. They were some of the best driving cars I'd ever driven.

• 2:43:02Speaker 01

  They drive small despite the size of them. I mean, you look at them and because they look like an A4.

• 2:43:08Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:43:08Speaker 01

  You don't really realize the size of them. And then you park it next to something like my RS2 and you're like, oh yeah, this thing is kind of massive.

• 2:43:14Matt Farah?

  And all the S8s were short wheelbase, right?

• 2:43:16Speaker 01

  And then they had the L, which was the longer wheelbase model. But the S8 has the better, has the five valve engine.

• 2:43:23Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah. I love, when they were new, those things were silver, Avis wheels, suede headliner, sick.

• 2:43:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, mine's all, mine's black on black.

• 2:43:31Matt Farah?

  Yeah, that's all right. Uh, West Side Collector Cat Storage, always shocked how in Jim Kana 7, your team was able to shut down large parts of downtown Los Angeles. What did that process look like? When I saw that shot that you guys did on the 110 freeway when you shut that shit down, I was like, that might be the greatest road closure for a YouTube video in history.

• 2:43:54Speaker 01

  It was pretty amazing. By the way, yes.

• 2:43:55Matt Farah?

  Michael Bay level road closure.

• 2:43:57Speaker 01

  You want to feel old? Yesterday was the 10 year anniversary.

• 2:44:01Matt Farah?

  Of that video?

• 2:44:01Speaker 01

  Of that video.

• 2:44:02Matt Farah?

  No way.

• 2:44:03Speaker 01

  10 years, 10 years of the introduction of the hoonicorn, all of that. Um, that part was, uh, I mean, at that point, we had already shut down San Francisco. So I went from, I can't believe we're doing this to, I can't believe you won't let me shut this down. Like I shut down a bridge. What do you mean I can't shut this down?

• 2:44:23Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:44:23Speaker 01

  Um, but it was still, I actually have this one photo of me and Ken, um, that I've been meaning to post, uh, of us, uh, like me grabbing a selfie with them. We weren't really like selfie guys, like that wasn't our thing. Like to be like, oh, let me like pop a selfie. One, we were always around professional photographers. We just had professional photographers taking photos of us together. And I don't know, like, I'm just in my fucking 40s. Like even when then, I was like, my generation was not as much to like, let's pop a selfie together. But we popped the selfie together on that road because it was, I knew at the moment how. How like how just amazing it was that we were able to do that and how iconic that moment of the 110, you know, 105 interchange was. And at that point, I'd only been living in Cali for

• 2:45:06Speaker 01

  a couple of years. I didn't even realize the extent of traffic and mayhem we had created by doing that.

• 2:45:11Matt Farah?

  Yeah, probably. What did that permit cost?

• 2:45:14Speaker 01

  The permit's not a lot. It's the police that costs a lot. The permits, there's the regular filing. It's everything else that comes with it because they're like, oh, you're gonna need

• 2:45:22Matt Farah?

  Need a hundred cops?

• 2:45:23Speaker 01

  27 officers and cars to deal with this and you have to pay them by the hour.

• 2:45:27Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah. That shit adds up. But when you're, man, when you're hiring the cops, boy, do they love to tell you shit they shouldn't be telling you.

• 2:45:35Speaker 01

  Yo.

• 2:45:35Matt Farah?

  Fucking the homies when you're paying them that much by the hour.

• 2:45:38Speaker 01

  They're also, they're also like the number one person to do a burnout. Like, you know what? You know how much, you know how much coaxing it takes to get a cop to do a cop car in a burnout? I'll tell you how much coaxing. I won't show the number on the side of the car. Just in it, in it. And it's like, it's like you, they, like, not only are they in it, but it's the perfect amount of brake versus throttle pressure, which means they've done it before.

• 2:46:00Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 2:46:01Speaker 01

  Like, they know exactly what it takes to smoke a cruiser.

• 2:46:03Matt Farah?

  They know every inch of that V6 Charger, dude.

• 2:46:07Matt Farah?

  We once shut down the 74 in Palm Springs, that beautiful road.

• 2:46:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 2:46:11Matt Farah?

  To do a tuner car shootout. And fucking, I had BBIs, that, that GT2 with the sequential gearbox. Project Swan, maybe?

• 2:46:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, Project Swan.

• 2:46:23Matt Farah?

  And I fucking lit that thing up so hard up that road. The cop came back down and goes, dude, what is in that car? And I go, I don't know, you want to find out? And he goes, yeah. And he got in the car and I, I probably did 150 in a 35 with a cop in the car going, fuck yeah, bro! It was fucking crazy. Uh, sorry, what?

• 2:46:43Speaker 01

  I was gonna say, we shut down Payuma Canyon once, and that was a great road. And the cops are the same way. They were just like, yeah, man, just have at it.

• 2:46:50Matt Farah?

  What did you do that for?

• 2:46:50Speaker 01

  Uh, RS200 video with Ken for Ford.

• 2:46:54Matt Farah?

  Oh, wow, yeah.

• 2:46:55Speaker 01

  You know, it was really cool. So, I also had a cop once, uh, shut down the FDR drive for me when I had the Ford GT before, like, 2000, it's like, it's like 2005, like, it is not out yet. And I was... We're sitting in traffic, just doing like quick little launches. And the cop pulls up behind me with the lights on. I was like, oh shit. You know, I was just smoking the tires for a second.

• 2:47:15Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:47:15Speaker 01

  He's like, hold on a second. He's like, is that the new Ford GT? And I'm like, like on the, like, you know, New York City cop, like.

• 2:47:21Matt Farah?

  Yeah, on the loud.

• 2:47:21Speaker 01

  Hold on a second. And he just starts going back and forth.

• 2:47:24Matt Farah?

  Oh, he does. He made you a gap?

• 2:47:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, it makes me a gap. And then he's like, let's run it. Let's run it. And he was like behind me with the lights on. And I was like, this is cool.

• 2:47:32Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it's pretty cool.

• 2:47:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:47:33Matt Farah?

  Uh, let's see. Roth V wants a daily driver, 400 horsepower, under 75,000, no manual gearboxes, good handling and comfortable seats. Hmm. Preferably a two-door coupe or a cab. 75 grand, daily driver, 400 horsepower. I mean, comfortable seats, good, these are pretty reasonable requests, right?

• 2:47:57Speaker 01

  This is really reasonable. This is like too reasonable for me.

• 2:48:00Matt Farah?

  So it's not a two-door coupe, but if you want a brand new car, I'm gonna go Audi RS3. The new RS3 is a nice.

• 2:48:09Speaker 01

  Fantastic car.

• 2:48:10Matt Farah?

  A nice choice.

• 2:48:11Speaker 01

  Drift mode.

• 2:48:12Matt Farah?

  Yeah, it works.

• 2:48:13Speaker 01

  Really works and is a lot of fun.

• 2:48:14Matt Farah?

  It does.

• 2:48:15Speaker 01

  I smoked a set of tires on one. It was really good.

• 2:48:17Matt Farah?

  Yeah, the new ones.

• 2:48:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, I've got, I've got your full support there. And if you want to be an absolute shithead, that thing will make 1500 horsepower.

• 2:48:24Matt Farah?

  If you go to Irons.

• 2:48:25Speaker 01

  Hank Irons.

• 2:48:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah, Irons. Yeah, those cars are so fucking fast. That's what I would do if you want. That's, that's like literally, I think, I think it's 72 out the door auto and it's 400 horsepower. So it's got two, two extra doors, but I think you're good there.

• 2:48:40Speaker 01

  The other thing is, is it's one of those, if you know, you know, cars.

• 2:48:43Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 2:48:44Speaker 01

  Which I like. It blends in really nicely.

• 2:48:46Matt Farah?

  Disappear in that car.

• 2:48:47Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 2:48:48Matt Farah?

  Get it in a, in a, in a non-bright color.

• 2:48:50Speaker 01

  Well, Hank said that one of the, his number one consumer for those cars are guys who own Lamborghinis.

• 2:48:56Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:48:56Speaker 01

  Because they own, well, they own a really fast car, but they want something that they can drive to a business meeting, but still have a thousand horsepower and smoke their friend's Ferrari when they're on the road with them. But they also want something that just looks like a normal car.

• 2:49:09Matt Farah?

  That was what Marcel from HPA told me. You know, HPA in Canada? And I drove their, uh, twin. Turbo VR six.

• 2:49:18Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:49:18Matt Farah?

  Fucking Golf R and it was 750 horsepower, ran nines. It was awesome.

• 2:49:23Speaker 01

  I love that's, that's, that's my kind of car.

• 2:49:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah. And speaking of which, all wheel drive bias says, Brian, are there motors better than the VR six? And which version of the VR six is your favorite?

• 2:49:35Speaker 01

  No, and obviously 3.2 24 valve. Um, by the way, I don't actually think the VR six is that incredible of a motor. I think there is obviously better motors, but just stating that for the fact. But bang for the buck, they sound good and they're kind of like the. I hate to say this, but like they're the Volkswagen LS.

• 2:49:54Matt Farah?

  Kind of.

• 2:49:54Speaker 01

  Like you can throw a ton of power at them, iron block, like you can build turbo cars that make a thousand plus horsepower and. And in the past five years, like people started to realize it. So now there's like really good support and technology behind it. Like it's one of those engines that when I was a kid and I was building them, if you could get to 500 horsepower, it was, it was crazy.

• 2:50:13Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:50:14Speaker 01

  Now it's like guys are doing billet block ones that make 2000 horsepower and they run on, you know, they run on really good management.

• 2:50:21Matt Farah?

  2000 horsepower of front wheel drive Volkswagen.

• 2:50:23Speaker 01

  No, people do it.

• 2:50:24Matt Farah?

  Not drivable.

• 2:50:25Speaker 01

  Yeah. But no, I think it's, I mean, it's a great sound. It's, it's a great sounding, unique sounding engine. Like no one's ever like. What was that? Like if you know engines, you're like, oh yeah, that's a VR.

• 2:50:34Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:50:35Speaker 01

  Yeah. It has that wookie noise to it.

• 2:50:36Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Ryan Morris says, just saw a video of a tuned Taycan 4S, that's the electric Porsche. Making 640 horsepower, the GTS and turbo make over 800. It's a physical ECU swap. That can be done in a few minutes, apparently 5000 bucks. What EVs would you like to see tuned next? I could not give less of a fuck about tuning EVs for more power.

• 2:51:05Speaker 01

  Can I, can I give another hot take? I think the Taycan is one of the better looking cars that Porsche has made in the past, however many years.

• 2:51:14Matt Farah?

  I agree.

• 2:51:14Speaker 01

  And I was ecstatic when I heard that they're considering putting an ice engine in it. Did you hear that?

• 2:51:19Matt Farah?

  I don't know if they're gonna do it with Taycan. I think they may, can, they may offer it with Macan. I don't think they can do it in the Taycan.

• 2:51:28Speaker 01

  Really? Because of the way they slope the nose?

• 2:51:29Matt Farah?

  Of the way that they, it looks, but I think they hedged a little bit with the Macan and they can make a gas one, I think. Um, they can definitely, there's going to be gas and electric versions of the next Cayenne and the next Panamera.

• 2:51:42Speaker 01

  I mean, I think that like the Taycan, I look at it and I'm just like, essentially, what is it? The sport tourism or whatever? It's a beautiful car.

• 2:51:50Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:51:50Speaker 01

  But.

• 2:51:51Matt Farah?

  There is, so I've driven all of them.

• 2:51:53Speaker 01

  Are you anti EV?

• 2:51:54Matt Farah?

  No, no.

• 2:51:56Speaker 01

  But you just are like not?

• 2:51:57Matt Farah?

  No, I, it's not that I, I'm, I like EVs for the things that they're good at. I don't like EVs for, for, as being sports cars typically. And I've driven all the Taycons. Beyond the stock 4S, right? Which is like 560 horsepower, which is so much. Beyond that, the faster ones don't like get you anything.

• 2:52:21Speaker 01

  Right.

• 2:52:22Matt Farah?

  There's only so fucking fast you can go anywhere.

• 2:52:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:52:25Matt Farah?

  I, you know, I've driven the turbo and the GTS and the fucking, the Taycan GT made me so physically ill.

• 2:52:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:52:33Matt Farah?

  And it's just like, what am I, and it's, it's not like, we've talked about this so many times, but like, if you take out your, uh, let's, we'll use the example of Dodge Chargers. You're driving a V6 rental Dodge Charger. It, it has a frequency of how it sounds. It has a frequency of how it revs. It sounds a certain way. Okay, now you go to the, the V8, the Hemi. Okay, yeah, that, now it sounds different. It feels more powerful. Now you go to the Hellcat. Even in a traffic jam, you can tell the difference between those three.

• 2:53:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 2:53:03Matt Farah?

  They feel different all the time. A base Taycan and a Taycan GT are exactly the same until you get to the last 10% of the pedal, which even the base cars are so fast with so much instant torque, you're almost never doing.

• 2:53:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:53:18Matt Farah?

  So I don't give a fuck. I mean, thank you for sharing, Ryan. I'm, I'm happy, happy this exists, but like, I've never been in any EV, ever. Where I want, you know what this needs?

• 2:53:29Speaker 01

  More.

• 2:53:30Matt Farah?

  Like more power. Never, not a one.

• 2:53:32Speaker 01

  You've driven the 5N.

• 2:53:34Matt Farah?

  I liked it.

• 2:53:35Speaker 01

  That's like the right amount of power.

• 2:53:37Matt Farah?

  It's great. It has a great balance of handling and power and, and the synthetic gearbox lies to me convincingly.

• 2:53:45Speaker 01

  But it's one of the few times where I got to drive it at Laguna before the press launch. We went there to help them do some photography for it. So I drove it last December.

• 2:53:53Matt Farah?

  I was there with Vin and Ron. I was there the next day or whatever.

• 2:53:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, and, um. We, I hated that I liked the audio input.

• 2:54:02Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:54:03Speaker 01

  But it made me understand the speed of the car going into a corner.

• 2:54:07Matt Farah?

  A hundred percent.

• 2:54:08Speaker 01

  One of the problems I dislike about an EV, whether it's on a canyon road or, or on a track, is I have a hard time judging my speed. It's like playing a simulator with the volume off.

• 2:54:18Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:54:18Speaker 01

  Like I'm going into a corner, I'm like, whoa, whoa, I'm carrying way too much speed. Where if I'm going into the corner and I'm like, meh, like even if it's a fake noise, I'm like, man, that works.

• 2:54:26Matt Farah?

  You go, this is a third gear corner, this is a fourth gear corner, this is a second gear corner. Frames of reference are good.

• 2:54:32Speaker 01

  I mean, that was a big thing that for Ken on Electricano, the first one, we didn't have a simulated gearbox. The second, we put a simulated gearbox in and it was like a different car for him. Because otherwise, it's like, there's just no understanding of reference. So like, how fast am I going? How fast are the wheels spinning? I don't know.

• 2:54:47Matt Farah?

  It makes an enormous difference.

• 2:54:48Speaker 01

  But at the same time, it's really cringy. Like to sit there and like pipe in fake audio noise into the car to get that experience, but it works.

• 2:54:57Matt Farah?

  It does work.

• 2:54:58Speaker 01

  It works.

• 2:54:59Matt Farah?

  Fake titties, lie to me.

• 2:55:00Speaker 01

  Also work, also work, good point.

• 2:55:02Matt Farah?

  Uh, let's see, Alex Brown, best budget friendly wheel brand, looking for under about 4,000 a set. Know anything about that?

• 2:55:11Speaker 03

  I buy really expensive wheels.

• 2:55:13Speaker 01

  Um, I'll be honest, I'm a used wheel kind of guy. Like you could go and buy a nice set of wheels for 2,500 or three grand and then have them refinished and, and barreled to fit perfectly on your car. And that's like almost a better spend. But I guess it depends on how new your car is and what, what you're looking for, um, that you want out of it. Um, you know, it's a cool wheel company, um, augmented wheels, have you seen them?

• 2:55:39Speaker 03

  I don't know.

• 2:55:40Speaker 01

  They basically take like, they basically take like old classic wheel designs and then like, build better sizing, better fitment for them.

• 2:55:47Matt Farah?

  That's pretty cool.

• 2:55:47Speaker 01

  So like phone dials and like, you know, like things like that. Like they make a 17 inch phone dial, which is like, if you have a 944 and you want to keep it on, like things like that.

• 2:55:55Matt Farah?

  That's pretty cool. I like that. I like that. Uh, Josh, what's your take on the B7 Audi RS4?

• 2:56:01Speaker 01

  Absolutely love it. And let's not talk about it because I don't want the prices to go back up. The prices jumped after COVID. Like they all did and then they stayed high for a little bit and they've recently dropped like you can buy a sub $20,000 one now. You can get like an 18 to 19 grand one for like 120,000 miles. That is a fantastic car.

• 2:56:21Matt Farah?

  Especially as like a highway car.

• 2:56:22Speaker 01

  It's a great highway car. Um, when they launched the one, when they launched the car in the U S, uh, we used it as the preview guide for zero to 60. Put 7,500 miles on that car in one week. Drove it from LA.

• 2:56:37Matt Farah?

  Did you tell him what you were doing?

• 2:56:39Speaker 01

  We told him we were gonna bring it. We told him we'd deliver it to the New York office.

• 2:56:42Matt Farah?

  7,500 miles.

• 2:56:44Speaker 01

  We had to do an oil change while, cause it was break in oil. We had to do an oil change in a Jiffy Lube on the, on the way. Cause I called Alan, um, I don't remember Alan, I'm blanking on his name, last name at the moment, but, um, Alan Hall, remember Alan Hall? I had to call Alan and be like, hey, man, like, I'm getting all these lights on that like I need to like do a service. Can I bring it to Audi? And then like we couldn't, we were like in the middle of like no Audi dealership for a hundred miles. We brought like a Jiffy Lube. But anyway, I did it like we went from LA to Pike's Peak to, uh, to Atlanta to then drive back to Chicago and then like loop all around to New York. So, and then I went, I, I did that with the, the sedan.

• 2:57:23Speaker 01

  And then the Avant I picked up, uh, in, we did a story, Nurburgring to Le Mans, comparing the two. And midway through the trip, it's like 2008, it was before I worked for Ken. Ken said, hey, I'm at, um, he, he's like, I saw you were in Europe. Cause I like posted something on like Facebook, whatever. He's like, I saw you're in Europe. Um, what are you doing? And I was like, oh, we're doing this thing. He's like, hey, I met Colin McCray's house. He said, if you want, you can come by.

• 2:57:49Speaker 01

  Because of that, I've been, so I've actually been shopping one right now. I've been shopping one because it's a great, it's a great car.

• 2:57:57Matt Farah?

  Nobody likes the convertible. They're so rare.

• 2:57:59Speaker 01

  Last time, the convertible, I, I, is kinda cool. Like if you were to want a convertible, it's a really cool car.

• 2:58:05Matt Farah?

  Invisible car.

• 2:58:06Speaker 01

  I'll tell you the weird swap I've been dreaming about is RS, uh, is RS four, B7 RS four with the V10 in it.

• 2:58:16Matt Farah?

  Well, it's probably doable.

• 2:58:18Speaker 01

  It's definitely doable.

• 2:58:18Matt Farah?

  You did it in the S6, right?

• 2:58:21Speaker 01

  You can, yeah.

• 2:58:21Matt Farah?

  You basically get an entire S6 powertrain.

• 2:58:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, you do that. Or...

• 2:58:25Matt Farah?

  Will it fit?

• 2:58:26Speaker 01

  Or, yeah, I mean, probably, but tight. Or, the new 4.0 liter twin turbo V8, which is across multiple Audi. But like, you could build that thing 800 horsepower all day. Because the one thing, if you drive a B7 RS4 today, it sounds great, it revs to 8500, it is a fantastic driver, it has amazing steering. The steering feels really good on the car.

• 2:58:49Matt Farah?

  No torque.

• 2:58:50Speaker 01

  But it's just a little slower compared to what you expect out of that type of car today.

• 2:58:55Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 2:58:56Speaker 01

  So, anyway.

• 2:58:56Matt Farah?

  But they're so nice.

• 2:58:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:58:58Matt Farah?

  Uh, here for Matt's Cats, is it nuts to intentionally buy an unreliable car with the intention of learning and growing as a shade tree mechanic? Something like a used 7 Series that can be had cheap and is notorious for issues?

• 2:59:14Speaker 01

  Alright, two parts.

• 2:59:14Matt Farah?

  I like where your head's at, but I don't...

• 2:59:16Speaker 01

  7 Series.

• 2:59:17Matt Farah?

  I think you've taken a wild left turn.

• 2:59:19Speaker 01

  No, everything you're saying is right. Everything you're saying is right. Honda Civic, maybe a Volkswagen Golf, something, something pre 2, like, pre OBD 2.

• 2:59:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah, 95 or earlier.

• 2:59:30Speaker 01

  Where it's still a lot easier to work on. The minute you went 7 Series was like, I don't know how to swim, but I want to get dropped in the middle of the East River and try to make it to Roosevelt Island. Like, that's, that's a lot. 7 Series is a lot. You should do it. You should definitely do it.

• 2:59:45Matt Farah?

  So much electronics. Like, that's the problem with those. You're talking about a luxury sedan with gadgets and shit in it.

• 2:59:54Speaker 01

  Well, this is the problem with my D2 S8, is that, is that the biggest issue is all the electronic issues. I have like, a bunch of, like, my engine temp light will go on even though my car is not hot.

• 3:00:05Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:00:06Speaker 01

  And I've replaced all the sensors, but... It could be because it's original can bus. It could be because my hazard light is out. Like, you just don't know with those cars. It's like too, too much pioneering in those cars for automakers. That they're doing everything for the first time and they built it for an audience that was gonna sell the car in three years.

• 3:00:26Matt Farah?

  Right, yeah.

• 3:00:27Speaker 01

  Like, they, they knew that.

• 3:00:28Matt Farah?

  That's every car from that period.

• 3:00:30Speaker 01

  It's lease era.

• 3:00:30Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Yeah, the biodegradable Mercedes wires, say hello.

• 3:00:35Speaker 01

  The, the mouse, uh, the mouse fetching soy material.

• 3:00:40Matt Farah?

  Oh my god, yeah. Okay, here's one. Chris says, "I stumbled upon a 95 JDM two-door RAV4."

• 3:00:49Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 3:00:49Matt Farah?

  "And I'm considering buying it to replace my crew cab Tacoma. I have a 40-mile round-trip commute and have your typical Pacific Northwest hobbies. Don't care about right-hand drive, I know where to get parts, and I have a local shop to work on it. Am I missing something, or should I buy this?"

• 3:01:07Speaker 01

  First off, typical Pacific Northwest hobbies, go.

• 3:01:11Matt Farah?

  Uh, hiking, smoking weed.

• 3:01:13Speaker 01

  Kayaking.

• 3:01:14Matt Farah?

  Kayaking, drinking craft beer.

• 3:01:17Speaker 01

  Drinking craft beer.

• 3:01:17Matt Farah?

  Smoking more weed.

• 3:01:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:01:19Matt Farah?

  Um, yeah.

• 3:01:21Speaker 01

  Flannels.

• 3:01:21Matt Farah?

  Skiing.

• 3:01:22Speaker 01

  Skiing.

• 3:01:23Matt Farah?

  Eating fish.

• 3:01:23Speaker 01

  Eating fish, that's a good one.

• 3:01:25Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:01:25Speaker 01

  Um, talking about farms and how the food gets to the table. What are other, okay, anyway, I just wanted to kinda understand what we were doing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, got it.

• 3:01:37Matt Farah?

  So, I mean, look, we have two-

• 3:01:39Speaker 01

  Hunting, but only, like, elk.

• 3:01:41Matt Farah?

  Vegan hunting.

• 3:01:42Speaker 01

  Like, I don't normally hunt, but when I do, I kill a massive animal and then I eat the whole thing for a year and a half. Okay, so now that we got that figured out.

• 3:01:51Matt Farah?

  Yeah, okay, cool.

• 3:01:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think the RAV4's perfect.

• 3:01:53Matt Farah?

  Can I just say that I saw in Arizona last week, a, a, a, like, a 90's two-door soft-top RAV4, cruising down the highway, on rims, with the soft-top actually down.

• 3:02:09Matt Farah?

  And I was like.

• 3:02:10Speaker 01

  That's pretty cool.

• 3:02:11Matt Farah?

  In a Bentley. And I'm kinda jealous of that guy.

• 3:02:15Speaker 01

  Nothing is better than driving a really fancy car and taking photo of a shitbox.

• 3:02:19Matt Farah?

  Do you know that?

• 3:02:20Speaker 01

  I love that because one.

• 3:02:21Matt Farah?

  Did someone stole that from me and it was a meme? And it went everywhere.

• 3:02:25Speaker 01

  Right.

• 3:02:25Matt Farah?

  It's me from a Ferrari press car.

• 3:02:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:02:29Matt Farah?

  And it's, and I posted this on Instagram and I took a picture of like a wagon, like a wood sided.

• 3:02:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 3:02:36Matt Farah?

  And it was like, I wrote like.

• 3:02:38Speaker 01

  Bubble Caprice.

• 3:02:39Matt Farah?

  Yeah, and I was like, I'm the guy in the $400,000 Ferrari, taking a picture of this old wagon. And someone screenshotted it for my Instagram. And out absent the context of it's Matt Farah driving a press car. The, and it gets stolen and shared around like twice a year.

• 3:02:56Speaker 01

  It's better, it's better without the context because it's better to think that that was the owner.

• 3:03:00Matt Farah?

  It is, but I was like, you fucking stole this and provided no context, you fucking assholes, but yeah. But you're right, that is, that is the best.

• 3:03:08Speaker 01

  Have you been in Steph's RAV4?

• 3:03:10Matt Farah?

  No, but I've seen it a lot and it seems awesome.

• 3:03:12Speaker 01

  He took me off road in it.

• 3:03:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:03:14Speaker 01

  It's fantastic. It's like every, like, it's so simple and it just works. It's pretty great.

• 3:03:20Matt Farah?

  I'm taking that, I have downstairs in the, in the underground level right now, I have the electric G-Wagon. That I'm gonna take off roading on Friday.

• 3:03:27Speaker 01

  The one that does the like.

• 3:03:28Matt Farah?

  Does the donuts, the tank turns, yeah.

• 3:03:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's pretty cool.

• 3:03:32Matt Farah?

  And based on the tires, uh, this one's been off roading a few times.

• 3:03:36Speaker 01

  It's got that full press treatment level.

• 3:03:37Matt Farah?

  Yeah. Uh, let's see, by the way, it is now three hours and two minutes of podcasting.

• 3:03:44Speaker 01

  Have we broken it?

• 3:03:45Matt Farah?

  The record is 249.

• 3:03:46Speaker 01

  Easy.

• 3:03:47Matt Farah?

  It's, it is easy when you're friends.

• 3:03:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:03:49Matt Farah?

  249 is the record.

• 3:03:50Speaker 01

  We lost Zach and we're still going. If Zach was here, we'd go to five hours. We'd go to five hours because he hasn't even started asking questions yet.

• 3:03:56Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:03:57Speaker 01

  Maybe you can text them in.

• 3:03:58Matt Farah?

  Okay, Chris says the Bugatti Torbion is in my opinion, the coolest car name. What other cool car names come to mind? And what would you name a supercar if you were head of marketing at a car manufacturer?

• 3:04:10Speaker 01

  Mitsubishi Starion. It's the coolest car name.

• 3:04:13Matt Farah?

  And I don't know. The story of it.

• 3:04:14Speaker 01

  Is it true?

• 3:04:15Matt Farah?

  Yes.

• 3:04:15Speaker 01

  It is true.

• 3:04:16Matt Farah?

  Yes.

• 3:04:17Speaker 01

  Cause like it sounds, it's a little racist.

• 3:04:18Matt Farah?

  It's, if it sounds racist, it's because it is.

• 3:04:21Speaker 01

  Probably true. Yeah, that is supposed to be called the Stallion to match the, to match the Mustang because it was a Mustang competitor.

• 3:04:28Matt Farah?

  I can't possibly beat Starion. You came, you came up with that so fast. And what is the worst, the worst name of a, of a, of a supercar is of course, the Ferrari La Ferrari. You cannot believe that such a talented company came up with that trash.

• 3:04:48Speaker 01

  But you think, see. But they, or was that a bet? It was like a bunch of guys sitting around, like drinking, like, you know, what's that lemon?

• 3:04:56Matt Farah?

  It was, it was, uh, like. Uh, Mr. Agnelli, do you really think they will buy anything we sell them, anything at all? Yes.

• 3:05:04Speaker 01

  Yes. Is there a special allocation for it? Yes.

• 3:05:08Matt Farah?

  Call it Ferrari La.

• 3:05:10Speaker 01

  The Ferrari.

• 3:05:11Matt Farah?

  Hmm. Yeah. Bad Gardener says, uh, once a month or so, I drive 500 miles in a round trip in a weekend to coach. Presumably that means kids' sports. What car would be good for the trip and have baller presence when I show up for 30K or less?

• 3:05:28Speaker 01

  Toyota Previa.

• 3:05:29Matt Farah?

  For sure.

• 3:05:30Speaker 01

  Um, no, 30K or less, uh, I'll, I'll give you a good one.

• 3:05:33Matt Farah?

  Bentley Turbo R.

• 3:05:34Speaker 01

  Well, uh, D4 Audi A8L.

• 3:05:38Matt Farah?

  That, is that the outgoing one?

• 3:05:40Speaker 01

  No, that, I think they're like D6 now, but it looks so similar to the new one that you don't realize that it's a 2015 or whatever.

• 3:05:48Matt Farah?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 3:05:49Speaker 01

  So it's, it's almost 10 years old.

• 3:05:50Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:05:51Speaker 01

  But it's still sort of, if you can get one on sub 100,000 miles, you can get it with the four liter twin turbo. So it's a, it's a highway monster. You can get the TDI as well. You can get it as a highway monster and most people just see and get it in black. Most people just see big Audi sedan, looks baller. Hmm. But the L means you've got plenty of room in the back for kids, bags. And if you have small kids, they can't kick your seat.

• 3:06:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:06:14Speaker 01

  It's pretty good for a road trip. That I love, and for a driver.

• 3:06:18Matt Farah?

  500 miles.

• 3:06:18Speaker 01

  You can crush miles with that thing.

• 3:06:20Matt Farah?

  500 miles, you might want the diesel.

• 3:06:22Speaker 01

  If you, yeah, if you need the pocketbook side on it. But I will also say during the pandemic, I went from San Diego to LA in an hour in that car. It's pretty amazing.

• 3:06:33Speaker 01

  Full Autobahn level.

• 3:06:34Matt Farah?

  Oh dude, I just, I just had a new, a new post pandemic high score. I got from my front door, which is right over here, to Scottsdale. Okay, it was 382 miles and I did it in under five.

• 3:06:53Speaker 01

  That's really good.

• 3:06:53Matt Farah?

  It was moving. But I left my, I left my house at 5:30.

• 3:06:57Speaker 01

  Perfect timing.

• 3:06:57Matt Farah?

  5:30 in the morning.

• 3:06:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:06:59Matt Farah?

  Left my house, I was gone.

• 3:07:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:07:01Matt Farah?

  And Bentley GT.

• 3:07:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:07:03Matt Farah?

  26 miles a gallon.

• 3:07:05Speaker 01

  The other thing.

• 3:07:05Matt Farah?

  I did 26.

• 3:07:06Speaker 01

  The other thing I'll say about the Audi, for some reason cops don't want to pull it over. They just look at you and go, you have a lawyer, he'll get out of the ticket. He'll make me show up to court. And he'll make me show up to court and explain I know how to use this machine. I'm good.

• 3:07:19Matt Farah?

  Yo, by the way, shout out to off the record, our, one of our, our biggest sponsors here on the smoking tire. My buddy Chris, uh, shout out to him. You know, big, you know, big Chris down in Texas? He, he's, uh, on team Richard Rawlings. British Chris.

• 3:07:33Speaker 01

  I don't actually.

• 3:07:33Matt Farah?

  He's like 6'6". Big dude.

• 3:07:35Speaker 01

  Usually all his tall, we, all his tall guys are on WhatsApp, so I must know.

• 3:07:39Matt Farah?

  Homie buys a fucking, uh, GT2, 996.

• 3:07:44Matt Farah?

  Home from buying it, he gets a whopper. He gets a fucking, he gets a biggin. And the cop comes up to the car and goes, first thing he says, is this a real GT2? So he's fucking knows.

• 3:07:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:08:00Matt Farah?

  He knows. And the ticket was deep in the triple digits. Chris called me like, bro, I am having a problem here. Off the record, dismissed. Full, full dismissal. And if I told you the number on the radar gun, you wouldn't fucking believe me. I mean, and it was.

• 3:08:19Speaker 01

  And those are painful. Tony Harmer on Bull Run in 2006 got a 155 in Moab in Utah.

• 3:08:27Matt Farah?

  In that vet?

• 3:08:28Speaker 01

  Uh, in the vet.

• 3:08:29Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:08:29Speaker 01

  And, uh, and I, I had just been behind the wheel and I had sustained 180 for over three minutes. Which by the way, that is a really long time to be going that fast.

• 3:08:38Matt Farah?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was an 06 Bull Run. That was the one where Rob and Noah had the Gotham 4GT.

• 3:08:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 3:08:44Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:08:45Speaker 01

  And that was the year that Rawlings didn't go. He showed up to go and then went and set the record instead. To like surprise everybody at the end. Yeah. Um, but, uh, he spent like two years dealing with that ticket. And the cop, by the way, was super cool. When the cop caught us. He was like, he thought we had killed someone. Like, he didn't understand why we were going that fast. He was going in the other direction. And the minute he popped the lights on, like, we weren't gonna try to outrun him. We just pulled over, turned the car off and put the keys on the hood.

• 3:09:14Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:09:15Speaker 01

  So he walked up and was just relieved that we didn't try to shoot him.

• 3:09:18Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:09:18Speaker 01

  And then apologized for ruining our vacation. He didn't really understand what I was trying to explain to him, that we were like, working. And then said, "I'm sorry, I would let you go, but I thought you guys were making a run for the border. I literally thought you killed someone."

• 3:09:31Matt Farah?

  I've already called this in.

• 3:09:32Speaker 01

  I called in air support. And literally, like, 10 minutes later, a helicopter comes flying over the top of us. And they arrested him, put him in jail. I had to go.

• 3:09:42Matt Farah?

  You had to bail him out?

• 3:09:42Speaker 01

  I had to go bail him out, yeah. But then when we, it happened right then and there, we got back in the car and got back on the road.

• 3:09:46Matt Farah?

  I never got any, any tickets that were written for a huge number on the road. I got a lot of bullshit. Dude, I got so many fucking driving while stickered. Oh, people called in, a whole bunch of cars.

• 3:10:00Speaker 01

  You guys are racing.

• 3:10:01Matt Farah?

  Yeah, and I'm doing 67 in a 65.

• 3:10:03Speaker 01

  Tony caught a, caught a great contest of speed.

• 3:10:07Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:10:08Speaker 01

  At 75 miles an hour in a 70, or in a 65 in Michigan.

• 3:10:12Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:10:12Speaker 01

  Because so many people called it in. And we weren't even with other people, we just had stickers on the car.

• 3:10:16Matt Farah?

  I, I went to jail in New York for alleged street racing. And I was, I was absolutely not street racing. Me and a friend of mine were just going real fast up the West Side Highway. But there's a big difference between going real fast and racing. Yeah, I was fucked up. I sat in jail. Didn't want to call my dad to bail me out. Ugh.

• 3:10:36Speaker 01

  See that one?

• 3:10:36Matt Farah?

  You know how easy it must, it was, everyone had knives and weed in jail. I got searched. I don't know, all these fucking guys down there looking at fucking three strikes.

• 3:10:46Speaker 01

  Prison purse, bro. You weren't thinking.

• 3:10:48Matt Farah?

  A homie's asking me for a match to fucking light a joint. I'm like, we're in jail right now.

• 3:10:56Matt Farah?

  Not only that, we're in the tombs in New York, underground fluorescent light jail.

• 3:11:00Speaker 01

  That you gotta put in your prison.

• 3:11:01Matt Farah?

  No windows. You're just gonna light a fucking joint in a cold, in a closed room? Crazy. Uh, last one, and then we will call this podcast, having now set an endurance record on this program. Tim A. Love you, Tim A. It feels absurd, but the new Carrera T is a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Uh, what used Porsche would you buy new for Carrera T money? Now, hang on a second. I don't think is, I don't think this car, I'm just looking it up, is a, a starting price of a hundred and, uh, we don't have the, we don't have the 992 dot two price yet.

• 3:11:46Matt Farah?

  Zach went on the launch. Oh, here we go. Um, coupe or, so the Carrera T Cabriolet starts at a hundred and forty-nine thousand. The Carrera T coupe starts at, uh, a hundred and thirty-six thousand. Now, I'm not saying that, can I fucking bring this up? I'm not, I'm not saying that that isn't a lot, but it is, it is not quite one fifty. So the coupe starts at one thirty-six. So, but anyway, back to Tim's question. New Carrera Ts are in the neighborhood of a hundred and fifty grand. What used Porsche would you buy for Carrera T money?

• 3:12:25Speaker 01

  Um, I would either buy a nicely specced, air-cooled, only because I don't, as sad as it is, I don't think the value's gonna go down on them. I think everyone thought they were gonna drop, and they just seemed to kinda keep going back up. So I think that's a car you buy that you could drive for five years and sell for the same thing you bought it. Which is, which is an amazing thing to be able to do.

• 3:12:47Matt Farah?

  There will not be any more of them. They're all the ones that ever will exist, exist now.

• 3:12:51Speaker 01

  Otherwise, I would say a really, really nice spec 997. I think the 997 is the greatest of the water-cooled. For me, the other ones that got bigger, I, I like the 997 feels like it's still connected to the lineage of the air-cooled. Like, everything else to me feels like it's a different car.

• 3:13:09Matt Farah?

  Sure, I get that.

• 3:13:10Speaker 01

  Like, the car just feels, not saying it's a bad car, they're still great, but it feels like it's not the same car. I don't, you couldn't afford a GT3 at 150.

• 3:13:19Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:13:19Speaker 01

  But, a really good spec.

• 3:13:21Matt Farah?

  You could do a 997 GTS.

• 3:13:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:13:24Matt Farah?

  150 will get you a very good one.

• 3:13:26Speaker 01

  And get it in a great spec, get it in a weird color with a weird interior, because that'll be worth, that's gonna be the car that'll be worth 200, 250 in a few years from now, which is crazy to think.

• 3:13:36Matt Farah?

  Yeah, I mean, that's a great choice, a 99, you might be able to get a 993 4S for, for 150 grand. It will have miles on it, but it's possible. I mean, also, my Spyder, you know, I love my Spyder, it's the right size and, you know, it's, it's big on the inside and small on the outside, and it looks great and it does everything well, and so, I recommend.

• 3:14:01Speaker 01

  The other option would be, what was that, 150?

• 3:14:04Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:14:05Speaker 01

  So like 20 944s. That's, that's always an option.

• 3:14:09Matt Farah?

  A dozen 996 Carreros.

• 3:14:12Speaker 01

  Just run an entire 944 racing series of your own.

• 3:14:16Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:14:17Speaker 01

  So, yeah, that would, that would be it.

• 3:14:18Matt Farah?

  All right, well, that is our three hour program, make sure to, come on fucker. I was trying to put your shit up on the screen here, but it's not.

• 3:14:28Speaker 01

  No, it's alright.

• 3:14:29Matt Farah?

  I don't know why it's not working. Let's try now, there we go, it's up on the screen. Brian Scotto on Instagram, is your Patreon?

• 3:14:37Speaker 01

  My Patreon there, and also my, uh, my YouTube, because I will start uploading to YouTube in like a couple of weeks.

• 3:14:42Matt Farah?

  Great.

• 3:14:42Speaker 01

  I was gonna try to time it where I was gonna be able to announce today, it's coming up tomorrow, but I'm, I'm not that organized.

• 3:14:47Matt Farah?

  It's okay, this'll go off, this'll go up tomorrow, Tuesday.

• 3:14:50Speaker 01

  Awesome.

• 3:14:51Matt Farah?

  Thank you to all of our patrons, of course, patreon.com/thesmogentirepodcast is where you do all of those things, ad-free, uh, early access, live stream, the whole shit, and we've got our, uh, our Tactile Turn, uh, pen collab, we've got the Titanium, which this is, we've also got an Aluminum, if you don't want to spend this much money, but you still want a good lightweight, lifetime guarantee pen. Made in America, patrons only. I will post the link on the Patreon if there's any left, because we made 100 of them. If there's any left at the end, we'll sell them to the public. But, uh, Scotto, new record, hubby.

• 3:15:28Speaker 01

  Johnny Lieberman, suck it.

• 3:15:30Matt Farah?

  Suck it, Johnny.

• 3:15:31Speaker 01

  Record's mine. And if you want to come back for it, I'm just getting started.

• 3:15:35Matt Farah?

  And we didn't even open the pretzel nuggets.

• 3:15:37Speaker 01

  No, we really even tapped into this.

• 3:15:39Matt Farah?

  Yeah, thank you for bringing the snacks.

• 3:15:40Speaker 01

  One Arizona green tea and two Red Bulls got me through this.

• 3:15:43Matt Farah?

  That's it. Fuck yeah, dude. Well, always good to see you.

• 3:15:46Speaker 01

  Definitely.

• 3:15:46Matt Farah?

  Tell Ashley I said hello.

• 3:15:48Speaker 01

  Will do.

• 3:15:48Matt Farah?

  And, and I can't wait to see what you end up doing with your Patreon. I will join your Patreon today.

• 3:15:53Speaker 01

  Now, I feel like it's a pity you're joining, but I, I'll still take your six bucks.

• 3:15:56Matt Farah?

  Yeah.

• 3:15:56Speaker 01

  So, I enjoy it.

• 3:15:57Matt Farah?

  I got six on it.

• 3:15:58Speaker 01

  Yeah. All right. I'll make you a free member by giving me some storage. I got like, I got 27 cards.

• 3:16:02Matt Farah?

  That costs more than six bucks. Uh, all right. Thanks, everybody. We'll see you next time. Goodbye.